UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


A  HISTORY 


OF   THE 


PEOPLE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 


FROM  THE  REVOLUTION  TO  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 


BY 


JOHN  BACH  McMASTER, 

WHARTON   SCHOOL,   UNIVERSITY  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 


IN  FIVE  VOLUMES. 
VOLUME  III. 


NEW   YORK: 
D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY, 

1,  3,  AND  5  BOND  STREET. 
1892. 


.t-.i-fl.4r  •» 

, 

4436     3      I()K^' 

-A-     •->     U1    -W    (*i    ' 


COPYRIGHT,  1891, 
BY  JOHN  BACH  McMASTER. 


55 


X 


of 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  III. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

PAGE 

Jefferson  believes  the  Louisiana  purchase  to  be  unconstitutional  ...       1 

Proposes  an  amendment  to  legalize  it 1,  2 

The  Cabinet  silent 2 

Advice  of  Jefferson's  friend  Nicholas 3 

The  President  protests  and  yields 3 

The  treaty  and  conventions  ratified 8 

Debate  on  carrying  the  treaty  into  effect 3-10 

A  call  for  papers  defeated  in  the  House 3-6 

Objections  of  the  Federalists 6,  Y,  8 

Replies  of  the  Republicans .        .7 

Government  of  the  new  territory 9,  10 

Stock  issued 10 

French  claims  provided  for 10 

Louisiana  delivered  to  France       ........       10,  11 

Volunteer  patrol  in  New  Orleans 11 

Protests  from  the  Spanish  Minister 11 

Jefferson  prepares  for  resistance  .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .       11,  12 

Career  of  W.  C.  C.  Claiborne .       12,  13 

Louisiana  delivered  to  the  United  States       .        .  " .        .        .       13,  14 

Upper  Louisiana  not  included Note,  13 

Previous  transfers , 14 

Boundary 14 

Population  and  settlements.     Natural  features 15 

New  Orleans 15-19 

Quadroon  women 18 

Social  life 18 

Municipal  government 19,  20 

Courts 20 

Syndics 20,  21 

Spanish  rulers  of  Louisiana 21 

Revenue  of  the  province 22 


iv  CONTENTS. 

PAQB 

The  Territory  of  Orleans  separated  from  the  District  of  Louisiana         .         .     23 

Proposed  government  for  Orleans 23 

Debated  in  the  House 23-26 

The  bill  passed 26 

Bad  choice  of  territorial  officers 26 

Spanish  troops  and  civil  officers  linger  in  New  Orleans  .        .        .  27,  28 

Louisiana  remonstrance 28,  29 

Petition  from  the  Northern  district 29 

Action  of  Congress 30 

Indignation  and  threats  of  the  Louisiana  delegates        .        .        .         .       31,  32 

Mobile  Act 31 

Denounced  by  Yrujo 31 

West  Florida  boundary  dispute 32 

French  dominion  in  America .........       32,  33 

Spanish  claims  to  West  Florida 33,  34 

Spanish  spoliation  claims      ..........     34 

Convention  of  1802  ratified 36 

Cevallos  demurs  and  criticises  the  Mobile  Act 36 

Pinckney  enraged 36 

He  is  recalled  on  request  of  Spain 37 

Monroe  sent  to  Madrid 37,  38 

The  task  before  Monroe  and  Pinckney 38 

Monroe  seeks  French  aid 39 

Reply  of  Talleyrand 39 

Discussions  with  Cevallos      .        . 39-41 

Eastern  and  western  boundaries  of  Louisiana 40 

Monroe  returns  to  London 40 

Bowdoin  succeeds  Pinckney 41 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Northern  fears  concerning  the  balance  of  power 42 

Separation  from  the  South  agitated       .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .43 

New  England  people  not  aroused  by  the  politicians        ....      43,  44 

Slave  representation  attacked  by  Massachusetts 44 

Ely  amendment  passed  in  the  House 45 

Opinions  of  the  States 45-47 

Discontent  of  the  Federal  minority 47-48 

New  England  plots  secession 48 

Aaron  Burr  refused  a  mark  of  favor  by  the  President 49 

Nominated  for  Governor  of  New  York 49,  50 

Action  of  the  Federalists 50 

Secession  leaders  encouraged 50 

The  campaign 51 

Burr's  defeat  welcomed  in  the  South .51 

Burr  seeks  revenge  upon  Hamilton 52 

He  kills  Hamilton  in  a  duel 53 

Mourning  for  Hamilton  in  New  York  and  elsewhere     .        .        .  63,  54 


CONTENTS.  v 

PAGE 

Burr  flees  to  Philadelphia .        .        .54 

He  begins  negotiations  with  Anthony  Merry          ......         .         .54 

Plans  for  a  political  career  in  the  West        .        .  .        .        .       56,  56 

Burr  and  Blennerhasset        .....        .       56,  57 

Burr's  progress  through  the  West 57,  58 

He  finds  New  Orleans  ready  for  revolt          ....         .         .  58,  59 

Wilkinson  loses  confidence 59 

Burr's  scheme  in  the  newspapers 60,  61 

No  help  from  England 61 

Seeks  Spanish  aid 62 

Merry  recalled 63 

Burr  at  Cannonsburg    ...........     63 

He  captivates  Blennerhasset .64 

The  Western  World .64 

Burr's  prospects  bright 65 

Buys  the  Bastrop  Grant 65 

Daveiss  denounces  Burr  in  The  Western  World     .        .        .        .        .         .66 

Accuses  him  of  conspiracy 67 

Burr  before  the  Grand  Jury 68 

The  Governor  of  Kentucky  authorized  to  use  the  militia        .        .        .68,  69 

The  Frankfort  hearing 69 

Jefferson  roused  to  action 69 

Ogden  and  Swartwout  go  to  Orleans .         .69 

Wilkinson's  crooked  course 70 

The  President's  proclamation .         .         .71 

De  Pestre  brings  letters  to  the  Eastern  conspirators 71 

Yrujo  unfolds  the  plot  to  Cevallos 71 

Action  against  the  conspirators 72 

Burr  goes  down  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi      .......     73 

Wilkinson's  activity 73,  74 

His  illegal  arrests  of  Bollman,  Swartwout,  and  Ogden 74 

Burr  at  Bayou  Pierre 73,  74 

He  surrenders  to  Mead .        . 74 

The  Mississippi  Grand  Jury  fails  to  indict  him 75 

Burr  goes  in  hiding 75 

His  notes  to  Governor  Mead 75,  76 

He  flees,  and  is  arrested  in  Alabama 76 

The  President  treats  the  conspiracy  as  trivial 76 

The  House  calls  for  information 76,  77 

Jeflerson's  message 11 

Bill  to  suspend  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus 77,  78 

Bollman  and  Swartwout  arrested  in  Washington  and  discharged   .        .       78,  79 

Burr  arrested  in  Richmond   . 79 

Examination  of  Burr 79-83 

Grand  Jury  impanelled 81 

Proceedings  delayed  by  the  absence  of  Wilkinson 82 

Issue  of  a  subpoena  to  the  President  debated 82 

Burr,  Blennerhasset,  and  others  indicted 83 


vi  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Trial  of  Burr 83-85 

He  is  acquitted 85 

Committed  for  trial  in  Ohio  on  new  charges 86 

He  fails  to  appear 86 

Burr,  Blennerhasset,  Marshall,  and  Martin  burned  in  effigy    .        .        .        .87 
Later  career  of  the  conspirators 8*7,  88 

CHAPTEK  XVI. 

The  land-bounty  of  1776 89 

Public  lands 89,  90 

Westsylvania 91 

Western  limits  of  the  States 92 

Articles  of  Confederation 92 

Position  of  Maryland ;  of  Virginia 93 

Virginia's  land  office     .  93,  94 

Northern  Indians 94 

New  York  cession 95 

Conflicting  claims  west  of  the  Alleghanies 96 

Congress  solicits  cessions  from  land-owning  States        .        .        .        .         .96 

Pelatiah  Webster  on  the  use  of  Western  lands Note,  96 

Scheme  for  a  new  State  revived 97 

Virginia  cession  in  Congress          ........      98-100 

Eland's  proposition 98,  99 

Petition  of  army  officers 99 

Letter  from  General  Washington 99 

Carroll's  plan $9:  100 

Deed  delivered  by  the  Virginia  delegates 100 

Conditions  of  the  Virginia  cession 100 

Ordinance  of  1785 100-105 

Government  of  the  public  lands 101,  102 

Formation  of  new  States 101,  102 

Sale  of  Western  lands 102-105 

Extinguishment  of  Indian  title 10? 

Survey  and  division  of  lands 104 

Sections  for  schools  and  religion 105 

Squatters,  or  intruders,  driven  off 105-107 

John  Emerson's  call  for  a  convention 106 

Geographer's  line 108 

New  ordinance  for  the  sale  of  land 109 

James  Monroe  travels  in  the  West 109 

He  proposes  a  reduction  of  the  number  of  Western  States    .        .        .        .110 
Nathan  Dane  calls  for  a  temporary  plan  of  government        .        .        .        .110 

Navigable  waters  to  be  common  highways Ill 

Delays  and  final  passage  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787       .        .        .         .111,  112 

Massachusetts  cession Note,  112 

Connecticut  cession 112 

Pennsylvania  "triangle"      ...  ....         Note,  112 


CONTENTS.  vii 

PAGE 

Government  of  the  Northwest  Territory  organized         .        .        .        .  112,  113 

Criminal  code  of  the  Northwest 113,  114 

Reservations  for  education  and  religion Note,  115 

Land  sales  in  the  Northwest 116-117 

Land  office  proposed 116 

Offers  to  buy  land.     North  Carolina  cession 11 7 

Territory  of  the  United  States  organized       ....  .  117 

Hamilton's  report  on  sales  of  public  lands 118 

Indian  warfare  in  the  Northwest 118 

Wayne  at  the  Maumee.     Treaty  of  Greenville        .        .        .        .        .        .118 

Areas  to  be  sold  and  manner  of  selling  debated 119,  120 

Land-bill  passed.     Its  barren  results 120 

Northwest  Territory  enters  the  second  grade 121 

William  Henry  Harrison  its  delegate  in  Congress  .        .        .        .        .        .121 

The  Territory  divided 122,  123 

Harrison's  land-bill .        .         .  124,  125 

Land  always  obtainable  by  sections Note,  125 

Boundaries  of  Georgia  and  South  Carolina 125,  126 

Yazoo  land  companies.     "  Rattlesnake  "  money 127 

Georgia  land  companies 127,  128 

Mississippi  Territory -    .        .  128,  129 

Tyrannical  administration  of  Sargent 129,  130 

Georgia  cession 131 

Settlement  Act 132 

State  of  Ohio  formed 133-135 

Land  not  taxed  by  Ohio 134,  135 

Ohio  road  and  school  lands 135,  136 

Michigan  Territory 137 

Governor  Hull 137-139 

Detroit  laid  out  anew .  139,  140 

Land  titles  in  Michigan 141,  142 

Exploration  of  Lewis  and  Clarke 142-144 

Exploration  of  Pike I44.  i46 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

Limitation  of  suffrage I46.  14<7 

Right  to  hold  office  restricted 147-149 

Extension  of  the  franchise 149>  I50 

Constitution  of  New  Jersey .  150,  151 

Constitution  of  Ohio 151-153 

Life-tenure  attacked 152,  153 

Judge-breaking  in  Pennsylvania 153-159 

Judge  Addison 154-157 

Passmore's  insurance  suit 157-159 

New  Constitution  demanded  in  Pennsylvania 160-162 

Justice  Samuel  Chase l6^ 

Federal  judiciary  attacked 162-183 


viii  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

"  Midnight  judges  " 164-165 

Judge-breaking  in  New  Hampshire 165,  166 

Judge-breaking  at  Washington 167,  168 

Impeachment  of  Judge  Chase 170-172 

Trial  of  Judge  Pickering 172,  173 

Trial  of  Judge  Chase 173-182 

Chase  acquitted 181 

Randolph  and  Nicholson  seek  revenge 182 

Payment  of  witnesses 182,  183 

Twelfth  amendment 183-187 

State-rights  asserted 184-186 

Ratified  by  the  States 187 

Republican  caucus 187 

Presidential  campaign  of  1804  in  New  England 188-197 

Mode  of  choosing  electors  changed  in  Massachusetts     ....    188-189 

The  State  lost  by  the  Federalists 189 

Republican  efforts  in  Connecticut 189-193 

Bishop's  oration  at  Hartford 190,  191 

Suffrage  Bill 191 

Connecticut  without  a  constitution 190-192 

General  election  in  Connecticut 193,  194 

Federalist  electioneering 194-197 

Ridicule  of  gun-boats 195-197 

Jefferson  re-elected 197 

Approach  of  the  Republicans  to  Federalism 197,  198 

Jefferson's  second  inaugural  speech 198,  199 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Gun-boats  sent  to  the  Mediterranean 200 

BarbaryWar 200-208 

Congress  empowers  the  President  to  make  war 201 

Commodore  Morris  in  the  Mediterranean 201 

Bainbridge  takes  a  Moorish  cruiser  and  her  prize 202 

Commodore  Preble  brings  Morocco  to  terms 202 

The  Philadelphia  captured 202-203 

Stephen  Decatur  recaptures  and  burns  her 203 

More  money  and  ships  voted 203,  204 

William  Eaton 204,  205 

Eaton  appointed  Navy  Agent  for  the  Barbary  powers 205 

Preble's  operations  during  the  summer  of  1804 205,  206 

Loss  of  the  Intrepid  and  her  crew          ........  206 

Eaton  leads  an  expedition  from  Egypt 206 

Captures  Derne 207 

Lear  negotiates  a  treaty  of  peace 207,  208 

Commodore  Rodgers  brings  Tunis  to  terms 208 

Cost  and  gain  of  the  Barbary  War 208 

Trouble  arises  with  Spain     .         .        .     ,   . 209 


CONTENTS.  jx 

PAGE 

Seizure  of  Texas  considered 209 

Outrages  by  English,  French,  Spaniards,  and  pirates 210 

Desire  to  buy  the  Floridas 211 

Napoleon's  suggestions  approved.  The  President's  message  .  .  .  212 

Spanish  papers  sent  to  the  House 213 

Referred  to  a  committee ...  213 

Jefferson  makes  known  his  wishes  to  the  committee 213 

The  committee  reports 214 

Two  million  dollars  voted  to  buy  the  Floridas 215 

San  Domingo 215 

Toussaint  L'Ouverture 216,  217 

•A-  Armed  merchantmen 217,  218 

San  Domingo  trade  stopped 219 

— — Jefferson's  confidential  message  concerning  Great  Britain      .        .        .        .219 

—  "Rule  of  1756" 220 

*-""  Neutral  trade  with  the  colonies  of  belligerents 220,  221 

*—  French  decrees  and  English  orders        .        .        .        .        ,        .        .        .221 

—  Direct  trade  defined 223,  224 

. —  Important  neutral  trade  of  the  United  States         .        .        .         ...         .  225 

'•—'Great  Britain  determines  to  destroy  it 226 

**  Cases  of  the  Essex  and  the  Enoch 226 

~    Effect  of  these  decisions 227 

West  Indian  pirates 228 

Complaints  of  merchants  and  insurance  companies 229 

Measures  proposed  in  Congress 230 

Gregg's  resolution 230,  231 

«••  Debate  on  non-importation 231-235 

Gregg's  resolution  rejected ,  .        .235 

Pamphlets  on  the  commercial  troubles  of  1806      ....  Note,  235,  236 

Nicholson's  resolution  passed 236 

Murder  of  Pierce 236,  237 

Political  capital  made  of  the  incident 238,  239 

Jefferson  shuts  United  States  ports  to  the  Leander 239 

t*.  British  impressment  of  American  seamen 240-245 

**  Desertion  of  British  seamen -,  242 

•^.Attempts  to  settle  the  difficulties 242,  244,  246,  247 

The  Cambrian  and  the  Pitt 246,  247 

Case  of  the  Aurora 247 

"•*  Instructions  to  Commissioners  Monroe  and  Pinkney 248 

•x  British  blockade  from  Brest  to  the  Elbe 248 

*-    Delays  and  negotiations  in  England 249 

»•     Berlin  decree         .  249,  250 

"    British  treaty  of  1806 .    249-253 

*    Jefferson's  action  on  the  treaty 252 

«.   Changes  demanded 253 

Conduct  of  Captain  Love,  of  the  Driver 253,  254 

Of  Lieutenant  Flintoph,  of  the  Pogge 254 

Desertions  from  the  Melampus  and  the  Halifax 255,  256 


X  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Order  of  Admiral  Berkeley 256,  257 

—  Leopard  and  Chesapeake 257-259 

-    Excitement  in  Norfolk 259-261 

~-    In  other  cities ...  261,  262 

^—  Jefferson's  proclamation 262,  263 

_     Action  of  the  President 263,  264 

Pamphlets  of  the  time Note,  264,  265 

—  The  proclamation  disregarded 267 

The  Jason  and  Columbine  in  New  York  Bay 267,  268 

~     Feeling  in  England 269 

-~      Monroe  leaves  England 269 

Berkeley's  act  disavowed 270 

Berlin  decree  enforced.     Case  of  the  Horizon        .        .        .        .  .  271 

Napoleon's  movements  in  1807 272 

Copenhagen  bombarded  by  the  British 273 

More  orders  in  council  ..........  273,  274 

European  news  in  the  United  States 275 

—  Embargo  proposed        . 276 

The  bill  passed  and  signed 277,  278 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

*•  Tidings  of  the  embargo 279 

First  supplementary  act 280,  281 

Arrival  of  the  British  envoy 281 

•*  His  mission  fails 283 

Pickering  and  "  The  Logan  Act " 283-285 

John  Henry,  of  Montreal,  visits  Boston 285,  286 

John  Quincy  Adams 287,  288 

Fails  of  re-election  to  the  Senate 289 

Distress  of  sailors  under  the  embargo 289,  290 

"  0-grab-me,"  "Go-bar-em,"  and  "Mob-rage" 291 

Milan  decree 292,  293 

Evasions  of  the  embargo 293,  294 

Second  supplementary  act 295,  296 

Speech  of  Gardenier 295 

Embargo-breaking  on  the  Canadian  border 296,  297 

A  proclamation  forbidding  it 297 

«       The  President  empowered  to  suspend  the  embargo 298 

*  Third  supplementary  act 298 

Bibb  proposes  that  Representatives  wear  homespun 299 

i  Hardships  of  the  embargo 299,  300 

Flour  certificates 801 

Case  of  the  Resource 302 

Jefferson's  stringent  action 808,  804 

Embargo-breaking  on  the  lakes 304-306 

Effect  of  the  embargo  in  England 807 

The  Republicans  on  foreign  tribute 307,  808 


CONTENTS.  xi 

PAGE 

Napoleon  seizes  Spain  and  Portugal      .        .        .        .  .        .  309,  310 

Bayonne  decree .310,  311 

Spain  revolts  against  Napoleon 312 

New  England  towns  petition  for  leave  to  trade  with  Spain     .        .        .        .313 

Republican  caucus  in  Virginia 313 

Republican  caucus  in  Washington 314,  315 

Revolt  against  the  caucus 315 

A  tide  toward  Federalism ,-».316 

Madison  elected  President 317 

Jefferson's  last  annual  message 318 

The  "  Campbell  Report " 318,319 

Campbell's  resolution  debated  and  passed 320,  321 

Gallatin  calls  for  war 321 

Erskine  misinterprets  the  views  of  Gallatin 321-323 

Mourning  on  Embargo  Day 323 

Ballads Note,  324,  325 

Force  Act 325,  326 

Resistance  in  New  England 327-332 

Resolutions  of  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts        .  .        .  329,  330 

Governor  Trumbull  refuses  the  aid  of  his  militia 331 

Repeal  of  the  embargo  moved 333 

Embargo  lifted.     Non-intercourse  substituted 335 

Madison  inaugurated 336 

The  "  virtuous  minority  " 336,  337 

Monticello 337,  338 

CHAPTER   XX. 

Madison's  secretaries 339 

Canning's  instructions  to  Erskine 340,  341 

Reparation  for  the  Chesapeake  affair 341 

Agreement  concerning  intercourse  with  Great  Britain 342 

Madison  issues  a  proclamation  342 

Activity  in  the  seaports '  ...  342,  343 

Extra  session  of  Congress 343-346 

Conduct  of  Madison  discussed    • 844-346 

Rejoicings  over  the  renewal  of  trade 346,  347 

England  declares  Holland,  France,  and  northern  Italy  blockaded  .        .        .  347 

Erskine's  agreement  disavowed.     Erskine  recalled 348 

Non-intercourse  again  renewed 349 

Jackson  succeeds  Erskine  •. 349 

His  letter  to  the  British  consuls 349,  350 

Quarrel  with  Jackson 351-353 

Federalist  comments 853 

Republican  criticism  of  Great  Britain 353-355 

Resolutions  in  Congress 355-357 

Macon's  Bill  No.  1 367,  358 

The  bill  debated  as  a  navigation  act 358-360 


xii  CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

It  passes  the  House  and  is  lost  in  conference 360 

Macon's  Bill  No.  2        ...*.. 360,  361 

Effect  of  the  new  law 361,  362 

Napoleon  informed  of  the  Non-intercourse  Act 362 

lie  makes  no  concessions 363 

Secretary  Smith  asks  for  conditions  to  the  recall  of  Napoleon's  decrees .        .  364 

Pinkney's  negotiations  in  England 364,  365 

Decrees  of  Berlin  and  Milan  recalled 365 

American  ships  seized  in  European  waters 365 

The  Rambouillet  decree 366,  367 

The  Macon  Act  reaches  Paris 367 

Trade  with  France  restored  under  restrictions 368 

A  conditional  promise  to  recall  the  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees         .        .        .  368 

Pinkney  asks  for  revocation  of  the  orders  in  council 368 

British  Government  in  confusion 369 

Spanish  colonies  revolt 369 

Convention  in  West  Florida 369,  370 

The  colony  revolts 371 

Madison  accepts  the  proposal  for  annexation 371 

Governor  Claiborne  offends  Skipwith 372 

Resistance  overawed 372,  373 

Revolution  in  East  Florida 373 

Debate  concerning  West  Florida 373,  374 

Occupation  of  East  Florida  authorized 374,  375 

Debate  on  the  admission  of  Louisiana  .......    375-378 

Boundaries  of  the  new  State 378 

Orders  for  a  Constitutional  Convention 378,  879 

End  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States 379 

Multiplication  of  State  banks 380,  381 

Their  hatred  of  the  United  States  Bank 381 

Arguments  for  recharter 381,  382 

Circulation  of  foreign  coins 382,  383 

Petitions  for  recharter .        .        . 384,  385 

A  favorable  bill  reported  to  the  Senate 385,  386 

Crawford  defends  the  Bank 386,  387 

Pennsylvania  and  Virginia  senators  repel  his  charges    ....  387,  388 

Henry  Clay  attacks  the  Bank 388,  389 

Crawford  closes  the  debate 389,  390 

The  bill  lost 390 

Virginia  asserts  the  right  to  instruct  senators 390 

Non-importation  Bill  presented  to  the  House 391 

No  favorable  news  from  England 392 

Napoleon  fails  to  keep  his  promise 392 

The  second  of  February 392,  393 

Non-importation  Bill  recommitted 393 

Another  bill  reported 394 

New  French  Minister  arrives 394 

Scant  evidence  as  to  the  repeal  of  Napoleon's  decrees 394 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Struggle  with  the  minority  in  the  House 395-397 

Quarrel  between  Randolph  and  Eppes 396 

Rule  of  the  previous  question 397,  398 

>    Non-intercourse  Act  revived 1        ...  398,  399 

Work  of  the  eleventh  Congress 399 

Madison  ruled  by  a  cabal       ..........  399 

He  dismisses  Smith  to  retain  Gallatin   .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .  400 

Monroe  succeeds  Smith 401 

+-r  Pinkney  leaves  London 402 

""  New  British  Minister  arrives /     .        .        .        .  402 

—   The  President  and  the  Little  Belt .        .   402-406 

»— Minister  Foster  is  received,  and  begins  negotiations 406 

-~   Grounds  for  the  British  orders  in  council 406,  407 

»•   Contradictory  evidence  concerning -the  French  decrees  ....  407,  408 

~~  Pretended  repeal  of  the  decrees 409 

Joel  Barlow  appointed  Minister  to  France 410 

He  lingers  in  Washington 410 

Madison  answers  Foster 410,  411 

Different  language  to  the  French  Minister     .        .        .        .        .        .        .411 

Barlow  sent  to  France 411 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

f      War  predicted 412  - 

-  Economic  effects  of  the  embargo 412-415 

-  Stay-laws  in  the  South 416,  4 It 

English  common  law  repudiated 417,  418 

Young  Republicans 419,  420 

Election  in  Massachusetts 420-423 

Faneuil  Hall  resolutions 422 

Massachusetts  made  a  Republican  State 423 

"The  Plundering  Act" 423,424 

Protests  from  merchants 424 

French  decrees  not  revoked 424-426 

Explanations  attempted 426 

Twelfth  Congress  called  together 426 

Republican  press  calls  for  war 427 

Henry  Clay 427-430 

His  speech  concerning  West  Florida 429,  430 

Made  Speaker  of  the  House 431 

Warlike  report  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations ....  431,  432 

The  report  explained 432,  433 

Debate  on  a  regular  army 433,  434 

Randolph  opposes  war 434,  435 

«•»    Army  Bill  from  the  Senate 435,  436 

Amendments  reported  in  the  House 436 

War  Republicans  attack  the  amendments 436 

The  bill  becomes  law 437 


xiv  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Randolph  proposes  that  the  army  construct  public  works      ....  437 

His  motion  rejected 438 

Use  of  the  militia  outside  the  United  States 438 

Failure  to  authorize  such  use  injures  the  Republicans    ....  438,  439 

Navy  Bill 439 

Hatred  of  a  navy  a  Republican  principle 439 

Debate  on  the  bill 439,  440 

It  is  weakened  and  passed 440 

Defeat  of  the  war  leaders 440,  441 

War  taxes 441-443 

Salt  tax  defeated 442,  443 

Reconsidered  and  passed 443 

Attitude  of  the  Federalists  toward  the  war 444 

Henry  letters 444-447 

"  Count  Edward  de  Crillon  " 444,  447 

Presidential  election  approaches    .........  448 

Story  that  Madison  was  coerced  into  war 448,  449 

Clay's  plan 449 

American  ships  burned  by  the  French 449,  450 

An  embargo  for  ninety  days  laid  .........  450 

News  of  the  embargo 451 

Ships  hurried  out  of  port 461,  452 

A  year  of  Republican  rule  in  Massachusetts 452,  453 

The  State  redistricted 453 

Representatives  paid  out  of  the  State  Treasury     .."....  453 

Federalists  successful  in  Massachusetts 454 

The  eleven  million  loan  not  taken 454,  455 

Discouragements  of  the  war  party 455,  456 

Madison's  war  message 456,  457 

The  vote  on  war 457,  458 

War  declared .  458 


» 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


Growth  of  the  country  since  the  Revolution 459 

Extent  of  the  frontier 460 

Western  movement  of  the  people 460,  461 

Internal  improvements 461,  462 

West  India  trade 462 

Turnpikes 462,  463 

Enormous  cost  of  transportation 463,  464 

Lack  of  national  unity 465 

Public  improvements  called  for 465 

Coast  survey 465-469 

Cumberland  Road 469,  470 

Chesapeake  and  Delaware  Canal 471-473 

Great  inland  water-way  projected 471 

Gallatin's  report  on  roads,  canals,  harbors,  and  rivers   ....    473-475 


CONTENTS.  xv 

PAGE 

Canal  and  road  corporations  seek  aid 475 

Their  petitions  favored  in  the  Senate 475 

Porter  advocates  internal  improvements  in  the  House   ....   475-477 

Western  farmers  need  a  market 476     j 

Little  action  by  Congress 478    ' 

Old  canal  projects  revived 478 

Erie  Canal .        .478 

Commerce  in  the  Mohawk  Valley 480 

Salina 480 

Pittsburg 481,  483 

Duane's  letters  on  public  improvements  in  Pennsylvania       .        .        .  481,  482 

His  appeal  not  made  in  vain 482 

Boat-building  at  Pittsburg.    Ohio  River  towns 483 

Trade  in  Tennessee 484-486 

Introduction  of  the  steamboat .  486,  487 

Robert  Fulton 487 

Submits  his  idea  for  a  steamboat  to  Napoleon       .        .        ...        .        .  488 

Forms  a  partnership  with  Livingston 488,  489 

Experiments  on  the  Seine 489 

The  Clermont '      .  490 

Extension  of  steam  navigation 491 

The  journey  between  Philadelphia  and  New  York          ....  491,  492 

The  Raritan  bursts  her  boiler 491 

New  Jersey  attacks  the  monopoly  of  Fulton  and  Livingston  .         .        .  492,  493 
Coaches  between  Philadelphia  and  New  York        ....          Note,  492 

Stevens's  efforts  in  Philadelphia 493 

Gravity  railroad  in  Boston.     Leiper's  tramway 494 

Ideas  of  Oliver  Evans  for  utilizing  steam      ........  495 

Encouragement  to  manufacturers 495 

First  tariff  act  psssed 496 

All  trades  cry  out  for  protection 497 

Jefferson's  administration  gives  protection  freely 498 

The  Mediterranean  fund,  and  renewal  of  war  in  Europe        ....  498 

Exports  of  produce        .        .        . 498,499 

Imports  of  foreign  manufactures 499 

Profits  of  this  trade 499 

Dependence  on  Europe 499 

Rage  for  manufacturing 500-505 

Warehouse  in  Baltimore 501 

Associations  for  encouraging  domestic  manufactures 601 

Action  of  State  Legislatures 602,  503 

Importation  of  merino  sheep 603,  504 

Factories  spring  up  in  every  quarter 604,  505 

Protection  for  infant  industries 605,  506 

Statistics  of  manufactures  wanted         ........  506 

Incorporated  in  the  census  of  1810 607 

Arguments  for  protection 507-509 

Rates  of  wages 509,  510 


xvi  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Schedule  of  the  Nashville  doctors 510 

Labor  organizations 510,  511 

Strikes 511-513 

Duane  defends  the  shoemakers 512 

Skilled  laborers  few 513,  514 

Redemptioners  for  sale 514 

Abolition  sentiment  stirred  up  by  the  Revolution 514 

Checked  by  the  framing  of  the  Constitution 515 

Laws  of  1793  and  1794 515 

Demand  for  slaves  increased  by  the  cotton-gin 515 

Slave-trade  requires  more  stringent  measures 616 

Fear  of  free  negroes  from  San  Domingo 516 

Law  passed  excluding  them  .         .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .517 

Impossible  to  prevent  landing  slaves  in  South  Carolina 617 

North  Carolina  proposes  an  amendment  to  prohibit  the  slave-trade        .        .517 

Proposition  to  tax  slaves  imported 518 

Lowndes,  of  South  Carolina,  opposes  it 518 

The  question  debated.     No  result  reached '  .  519 

Bill  to  prohibit  importing  slaves  after  1807 520 

What  to  do  with  negroes  seized  by  revenue  officers       ....  520,  521 

The  South  would  "  get  rid  of "  free  negroes 520 

Senate  bill  passes  the  House 521 

Slavery  in  the  Northwest  Territory 521-528 

Slaves  not  freed  by  the  ordinance  of  1787 621,  522 

Action  of  Judge  Turner 522 

Petition  for  slavery  in  the  Illinois  country 522,  623 

Petition  of  the  Virginia  soldiers 524 

Another  petition  from  the  Illinois  country     .......  524 

Territory  of  Indiana  holds  a  convention 524 

The  convention  memorializes  Congress  in  behalf  of  slavery  ....  525 

Randolph  drafts  a  refusal 525 

Virginia's  "  Law  concerning  Servants  "  copied       ......  525 

Indiana  Territory  petitions  to  be  attached  to  Louisiana          ....  626 

Indiana  becomes  a  territory  of  the  second  grade 526 

Its  Legislature  authorizes  the  introduction  of  slaves 626 

Discussion  of  the  law 627 

Slavery  finally  excluded  from  Indiana 527 

Slavery  in  Michigan 527,  528 

Slavery  in  Illinois  after  the  separation  from  Indiana 528 

Harrison  suffers  for  his  proslavery  efforts 528 

He  obtains  an  extension  of  the  Indiana  Territory 628,  629 

Tecumthe  and  Olliwochica.     Plan  for  an  Indian  republic      .        .        .  629,  630 

Settlement  made  on  Tippecanoe  Creek 630 

Indications  of  coming  trouble 530,  631 

Conference  between  Harrison  and  Tecumthe 631,  632 

Alarm  on  the  frontier 632 

Harrison  marches  into  the  Wabash  purchase 533 

Battle  of  Tippecanoe 634 


CONTENTS. 

\  FAOK 

Tecumthe's  Southern  tour 635 

Fanaticism  among  the  Southern  Indians 535,  536 

War  on  the  frontier 536 

Smuggling  in  East  Florida 537 

Matthews  plans  a  revolution 537 

Invaders  enter  East  Florida 538 

Fernandina  surrenders  ...........  539 

Madison  sends  Governor  Mitchell  in  place  of  Matthews 539 

Attack  of  the  Spaniards 540 

News  of  the  declaration  of  war 540 

Fate  of  West  Florida  already  settled 510 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Condition  of  the  Western  frontier  in  1812 541,642 

Condition  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard  and  the  Southern  frontier        .        .         .  542 

Difficulty  in  raiding  troops '          543,  544 

Governor  Griswold,  of  Connecticut,  refuses  to  furnish  militia         .         .         .  544 

Connecticut  Legislature  affirms  the  doctrine  of  State  rights    ....  545 

Opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts    .....  545,  546 

Views  of  the  Governor's  council  in  Rhode  Island 546 

Officers  selected  for  the  army 546,  547 

Condition  of  our  navy 547,  548 

List  of  ships  in  the  navy Note,  548 

Provisions  for  war  revenue 549 

"  The  immortal  twelfth  "  Congress 549 

Federalists  condemn  the  declaration  of  war 549,  550 

Address  of  the  Massachusetts  Senate 650,  551 

The  war  denounced  in  New  England 551,  552 

"  Friends  of  Peace  " 552,  553 

Office  of  the  Federal  Republican  mobbed 653 

The  mob  attacks  the  editor's  house 554 

The  jail  stormed 554 

The  affair  in  the  Republican  and  the  Federal  papers      ....  554,  555 

Freedom  of  the  press  attacked 555,  556 

Dearborn's  plan  for  the  invasion  of  Canada 656 

Condition  of  Hull's  troops 556,  557 

Hull  ordered  to  hurry  to  Detroit    ...'......  557 

He  enters  Upper  Canada 557 

Hull's  sloth  and  Brock's  energy 558 

Surrender  of  Hull  at  Detroit 559 

Slow  movements  of  Dearborn 559,  560 

MAPS. 

Ohio Facing  page  89 

Map  showing  in  five  degrees  of  density  the  distribution  of  the 

population  of  the  United  States Facing  page  469 


HISTOET 


OF   THE 


PEOPLE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE   GOVERNMENT   AND   BOUNDARY   OF   LOUISIANA. 

WHILE  the  Federal  writers  were  counting  up  the  wagon- 
loads  of  dollars  Louisiana  would  cost,  and  laughing  at  the  salt 
mountain  the  province  was  said  to  contain,  the  President  was 
laboring  hard  to  persuade  his  friends  to  make  the  purchase 
constitutional.  He  had  come  into  power  solemnly  pledged  to 
construe  the  Constitution  strictly.  Just  what  he  meant  by 
strict  construction  could  not  be  doubted,  for  he  had,  in  a  docu- 
ment written  by  himself,  laid  down  the  principle  clearly. 
Briefly  stated,  it  was  this  :  Congress  has  two  kinds  of  powers 
and  no  others  ;  powers  expressly  delegated,  and  powers  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  put  such  as  are  expressly  delegated  into 
effect.  To  this  principle  Jefferson  was  still  true.  Change  in 
place  had  brought  to  him  no  change  of  view.  Power  to  buy 
foreign  soil  and  incorporate  foreign  nations  into  the  Union 
was  not  expressly  given  to  Congress.  Nor  was  it  necessary  in 
order  to  put  any  delegated  power  into  effect.  In  signing  the 
treaty  he  had,  therefore,  in  his  own  words,  "  done  an  act  be- 
yond the  Constitution."  *  To  make  this  act  legal,  the  Consti- 
tution must  be  amended,  and  the  needed  amendment  he  now 
drew  up  and  sent  to  his  Cabinet,  f  Beginning  with  the  decla- 
ration that  Louisiana  was  incorporated  with  the  United  States 
and  made  a  part  thereof,  it  confirmed  to  the  Indians  the  right 

*  Jefferson  to  Breckenridge,  August  12,  1803.     Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  iv,  p. 
198. 

f  Jefferson  Manuscripts. 

VOL.  in.— 2 


2     GOVERNMENT  AND  BOUNDARY  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xiv. 

to  live  on  the  soil  and  to  govern  themselves,  and  cut  the  terri- 
tory in  two  parts  by  a  line  along  the  parallel  of  thirty-two 
degrees  north  latitude.  From  all  that  splendid  region  north 
of  this  line  and  west  of  the  Mississippi  the  white  man  was  to 
be  shut  out  till  a  new  amendment  gave  him  leave  to  enter. 
The  region  south  of  thirty-two  degrees  was  to  be  provided 
with  a  territorial  government. 

These  were  not  the  views  of  the  Cabinet.  Madison  de- 
claiming against  the  charter  of  the  Bank,  attacking  the  procla- 
mation of  neutrality  in  the  Letters  of  Helvidius,  and  support- 
ing the  Virginia  resolutions  of  1798  ;  Gallatin  denouncing  the 
treaty  made  by  Jay,  and  crying  out  against  the  alien  and  sedi- 
tion acts;  these  were  the  Republicans  of  the  old  school.  But 
the  old  school  no  longer  existed,  or  existed  in  Jefferson  alone. 
Change  of  place  had,  in  the  Secretaries,  wrought  a  change  in 
opinions.  Much  of  the  strictness  with  which  they  had  con- 
strued the  Constitution  when  in  Federal  hands  did  not  seem 
necessary  now  that  the  Constitution  had  passed  to  Republican 
hands,  and  the  proposed  amendment  was  received  by  all  save 
the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  with  respectful  silence. 

From  his  Cabinet,  Jefferson  now  turned  to  his  friends. 
But  his  friends  gave  no  encouragement  whatever  to  the  plan, 
and  he  once  more  turned  to  his  Secretaries.  Before  them  in 
August  he  laid  another  amendment,  in  length  shorter  than  the 
first,  but  in  substance  much  the  same.*  One  provision  made 
Louisiana  a  part  of  the  United  States.  Another  gave  to  white 
men  all  the  civil  rights  and  laid  on  them  all  the  obligations  of 
citizens  of  the  United  States  in  like  situations.  A  third  set 
apart  the  territory  west  of  the  Mississippi  and  above  the  Ar- 
kansas for  the  Indians.  The  fourth  and  the  strangest  of  all 
related  to  Florida.  Not  a  foot  of  that  country  belonged  to 
the  United  States.  Every  inch  of  it  was  still  the  property  of 
Spain.  Yet  he  proposed  to  announce  to  the  world  that  it 
would  some  day  be  ours,  and  that  when  it  was  "  rightfully 
obtained "  it  should,  like  Louisiana,  be  made  a  part  of  the 
United  States.  Again  the  Secretaries  received  the  suggestion  of 

*  Jefferson  to  Gallatin,  August  23;  1803.  Gallatin's  Works,  vol.  i,  p.  144. 
Jefferson  to  Madison,  August  25,  1803 ;  to  Lincoln,  August  30,  1803.  Jeffer- 
son's Works,  vol.  iv,  pp.  501-605. 


1803.  WAS  THE  PURCHASE  CONSTITUTIONAL?  3 

an  amendment  in  silence.  But  his  friend,  Wilson  Gary  Nich- 
olas, spoke  out,  told  him  that  the  Constitution  needed  no 
amendment,  assured  him  that  the  treaty-making  power  cov- 
ered the  case,  and  begged  him  to  keep  his  doubts  to  himself. 
Let  the  Senate  once  know  that  he  believed  the  treaty  to  be 
unconstitutional,  and  they  would  reject  it.  Let  them  reject  it, 
and  the  people  would  accuse  him  of  a  wilful  breach  of  the 
Constitution.* 

Advice  such  as  this  might  be  expected  from  a  Federalist, 
but  it  ill  became  so  stanch  a  Republican  as  Nicholas  and  was 
not  quietly  received  by  Jefferson.  When,  he  wrote  in  reply, 
he  considered  that  the  bounds  of  the  United  States  were  fixed 
in  1T83,  when  he  considered  that  the  Constitution  expressly 
declared  that  it  was  made  for  the  United  States,  he  could 
not  believe  that  the  framers  ever  intended  to  give  Congress 
power  to  take  any  foreign  nation — as  England,  or  Ireland, 
or  Holland — into  the  Union  by  treaty.  Such  a  construction 
would  put  the  treaty  power  above  the  Constitution  and  turn 
the  paper  on  which  that  document  was  written  into  a  blank 
sheet,  f  This  protest  made,  Jefferson,  after  his  usual  fashion, 
gave  way,  and  when  the  eighth  Congress,  in  obedience  to  his 
proclamation,  began  its  session  on  October  seventeenth,  the 
message  did  not  contain  one  word  on  the  need  of  an  amend- 
ment. 

Each  House  was  informed  officially  that  Louisiana  had 
been  ceded  to  the  United  States,  and  that,  when  the  treaty  had 
been  ratified,  it  would  be  necessary  for  Congress  to  provide 
for  the  immediate  occupation  and  temporary  government  of 
the  new  country.  On  October  nineteenth  the  treaty  and  con- 
ventions were  ratified ;  the  ratifications  promptly  exchanged 
for  those  of  the  First  Consul,  and,  three  days  later,  the  whole 
matter  was  before  Congress  in  order  that  stock  might  be  issued 
to  pay  for  Louisiana. 

In  the  House  Mr.  Griswold,  as  leader  of  the  Federalists, 
moved  a  call  on  the  President  for  letters  and  documents.  He 

*  Wilson  C.  Nicholas  to  Jefferson,  September  3,  1803.  Jefferson  Manu- 
scripts. 

f  Jefferson  to  W.  C.  Nicholas,  September  7,  1803.  Jefferson's  Works,  vol. 
iv,  p.  605. 


4     GOVERNMENT  AND  BOUNDARY  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xiv. 

would  have  a  copy  of  the  treaty  of  1800  ceding  Louisiana  to 
France ;  a  copy  of  the  deed  of  cession  executed  in  accordance 
with  that  treaty ;  all  letters  showing  the  assent  or  dissent  of 
Spain  to  the  purchase  of  the  province  by  the  United  States ; 
and  all  other  documents  tending  to  show  whether  the  United 
States  really  had  acquired  any  title  by  the  treaty  with  France. 

By  the  treaty  of  San  Ildefonso,  said  Mr.  Griswold  and 
those  who  supported  him,  His  Catholic  Majesty  bound  himself 
to  make  over  the  province  of  Louisiana  to  the  Republic  of 
France  six  months  after  certain  conditions  had  been  per- 
formed. The  treaty  between  France  and  the  United  States 
mentions  this  fact,  but  it  does  not  state  that  these  conditions 
have  been  fulfilled  and  that  an  actual  transfer  has  been  made. 
All  the  document  before  us  says  is,  that  Spain  has  promised  to 
cede  Louisiana  to  France.  Has  she  done  so  ?  If  not,  it  fol- 
lows that  France  has  no  title ;  that  she  cannot  give  one  to  the 
United  States ;  and  that  we  are  wasting  our  time  passing  laws 
for  the  occupation  of  a  country  and  the  governing  of  a  people 
we  do  not  and  cannot  possess.  As  to  this  there  must  be  no 
doubt.  We  must  know,  should  Spain  refuse  to  deliver  Louisi- 
ana to  France,  if  France  can  deliver  it  to  us.  We  must  know 
if  Spain  is  likely  to  refuse ;  and  to  know  all  this  we  must  have 
before  us  the  papers  called  for  in  the  resolution. 

We  rejoice,  said  the  Republicans,  that  the  members  on  the 
other  side  of  the  House  are  now  willing  to  own  what  they 
have  always  denied,  that  this  House  has  a  constitutional  right 
not  only  to  call  for  papers,  but  to  debate  whether  it  will  or  will 
not  carry  a  treaty  into  effect.  In  1796  we  were  told  we  had 
no  right  to  call  for  papers,  no  right  to  make  inquiry,  no  right 
to  deliberate.  Our  duty  then  was  to  hurry  through  all  neces- 
sary measures  without  asking,  Is  the  treaty  good  or  bad,  does 
it  promote  the  interests  or  threaten  the  welfare  of  the  United 
States  ?  Now  we  are  told  to  stop  and  consider.  This,  unques- 
tionably, we  have  a  right  to  do.  If  the  House  has  the  small- 
est doubt  as  to  the  validity  of  the  title,  a  call  for  the  papers 
ought  to  be  made.  Happily,  no  such  doubt  exists.  The  Presi- 
dent has  laid  before  us  a  document.  He  tells  us  it  is  a  treaty 
duly  executed  and  making  over  to  us  Louisiana. 

The  first  article  affirms  the  right  of  France  to  the  sovcr- 


1803.  THE  CALL  FOR  PAPERS.  5 

eignty  of  the  soil,  and  binds  her  to  put  us  in  possession  of  that 
soil  the  moment  we  have  fulfilled  the  stipulations  in  considera- 
tion of  which  the  country  and  the  people  are  to  be  surren- 
dered. From  the  nature  of  our  Government  these  stipulations 
can  only  be  carried  out  by  laws  passed  by  Congress.  The 
President  asks  Congress  to  pass  the  needed  laws.  Congress 
attempts  to  do  so,  and  at  once  endeavors  are  made  to  hinder, 
to  frustrate,  to  thwart  legislation  by  setting  on  foot  inquiries 
that  mean  nothing  and  have  no  bearing  on  the  subject  in  the 
least.  And  this,  too,  by  men  who  have  ever  held  that,  in  the 
matter  of  carrying  a  treaty  into  effect,  the  Constitution  has 
given  the  House  no  discretion  whatever.  Where,  then,  is  the 
necessity  of  calling  for  papers  if  we  must,  in  the  end,  put  the 
treaty  into  effect  ?  Information  of  the  kind  now  wanted  can 
only  be  asked  for  two  purposes :  To  enable  the  House  to 
judge  if  it  be  well  to  sanction  a  measure  that  carries  on  the 
face  of  it  proof  of  its  impolicy,  or  to  enable  the  House  to 
punish  a  minister  who  has  betrayed  his  trust.  There  is  there- 
fore a  vast  difference  between  a  call  for  papers  in  1796  and  a 
call  for  papers  in  1803.  In  1796  the  treaty  of  Mr.  Jay  had 
excited  public  abhorrence.  The  members  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  despised  it,  and  when  they  demanded  papers 
from  the  President  they  actually  spoke  to  him  thus  :  "  Sir,  we 
detest  your  treaty.  We  feel  an  invincible  repugnance  to  giv- 
ing it  our  sanction.  But  if,  by  showing  us  any  information  in 
your  possession,  we  can  be  convinced  that  the  interests  of  the 
United  States  have  been  well  secured ;  that,  wretched  as  this 
treaty  is,  the  terms  are  as  good  as  could  be  had ;  that,  bad  as 
the  terms  are,  it  is  politic  to  accept  them — we  will,  loth  as  we 
are,  pass  the  laws  to  put  it  into  force."  Can  the  House  hold 
such  language  now  ?  Can  they  say  the  present  treaty  is  odious 
to  the  people  ?  No,  it  has  been  hailed  with  shouts  of  joy  by 
the  nation.  If  this  is  so,  if,  in  place  of  being  discontented 
with  the  terms,  we  are  lost  in  amazement  at  the  vast  benefits 
we  have  so  cheaply  gained,  why  should  we  call  for  papers  ? 
Why  take  exception  to  our  own  title  ?  Why  refuse  the  offered 
possession  ?  But  a  few  months  ago  certain  members  were 
eager  to  leap  the  bounds  of  law,  raise  a  great  army,  and  make 
themselves  masters  of  New  Orleans.  Now  the  very  same 


6     GOVERNMENT  AND  BOUNDARY  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xiv. 

members  exhibit  a  strange  regard  for  law  and  are  very  anxious 
that  we  should  not  touch  Louisiana  till  our  right  and  title  are 
beyond  dispute.  They  are  beyond  dispute.  The  treaty  and 
the  conventions  have  made  them  so.  The  first  article  affirms 
that  France  does  own  Louisiana  by  virtue  of  the  treaty  of  San 
Ildef  onso,  and  that  she  cedes  it  to  the  United  States.  The 
third  article  looks  to  the  future  government  of  the  people  of 
Louisiana  by  the  United  States.  The  fourth  declares  in  what 
way  the  territory  and  the  people  shall  be  made  over  to  the 
United  States.  This  is  all  the  information  we  need ;  and,  in 
the  face  of  this,  to  ask  the  President  if  we  really  have  acquired 
citizens  for  whom  we  must  pass  laws,  is  a  mockery  of  him, 
of  this  solemn  business,  and  of  ourselves.  The  House  thought 
so  too,  and  on  a  yea  and  nay  vote  the  resolution  was  lost  by 
fifty-seven  to  fifty-nine. 

Next  day  a  motion  came  up  in  the  Committee  of  the  Whole 
to  carry  the  treaty  into  effect.  For  some  time  nobody  rose  to 
speak.  At  last,  after  a  few  minutes  of  silence,  Mr.  Griswold 
again  stood  up  and  opened  the  debate  for  the  Federalists. 

The  treaty  he  pronounced  unconstitutional  and  impolitic. 
It  was  unconstitutional,  in  the  first  place,  because  treaty-mak- 
ing power  does  not  extend  to  the  incorporation  of  foreign  soil 
and  a  foreign  people  with  the  United  States.  The  words 
"new  States  may  be  admitted  by  the  Congress  into  this 
Union  "  meant  new  States  carved  out  of  the  territory  belong- 
ing to  the  United  States  at  the  time  "this  Union"  was 
formed.  But  even  if  such  power  of  incorporation  did  exist, 
and  he  was  far  from  admitting  it,  the  power  surely  belonged 
to  Congress  and  not  to  the  President,  nor  to  the  President  and 
the  Senate. 

It  was  unconstitutional,  in  the  second  place,  because  the 
seventh  article  gave  to  the  ships  of  France  and  Spain  the  right 
to  enter  the  ports  of  Louisiana  without  paying  a  cent  more 
duty  than  was  exacted  from  the  ships  of  the  United  States. 
Elsewhere  a  discrimination  was  made  between  American  and 
foreign  bottoms.  Should  a  French  or  a  Spanish  vessel  laden 
with  goods  from  Cadiz,  from  Bilboa,  from  Marseilles,  enter 
the  port  of  Boston,  she  would,  before  unloading,  be  forced  to 
pay  a  duty  of  fifty  cents  a  ton.  Should  she,  however,  enter 


1803.  WAS  THE   TEEATY   CONSTITUTIONAL?  7 

the  port  of  New  Orleans,  she  would  find  the  duty  reduced  to 
six.  New  Orleans,  therefore,  was  to  enjoy  a  privilege  that 
would  enable  her  to  trade  with  the  French  and  Spanish  col- 
onies on  better  terms  than  any  other  port.  She  was  therefore 
a  favored  port.  But  this  could  not  be  allowed.  The  Constitu- 
tion declares  that  "  no  preference  shall  be  given  by  any  regu- 
lation of  commerce  or  revenue  to  the  ports  of  one  State  over 
those  of  another." 

It  was  unconstitutional,  in  the  third  place,  because  the 
President  and  Senate  had  attempted  to  regulate  trade  with 
France  and  Spain,  and  had,  in  so  doing,  usurped  a  power  ex- 
pressly given  to  Congress — the  power  to  regulate  trade  with 
foreign  countries.  It  was  impolitic  because  we  could  not  gov- 
ern so  vast  a  wilderness  and  a  people  so  unlike  our  own  in 
language,  in  manners,  and  in  religion. 

The  Republicans  held  that  this  action  of  the  President  was 
perfectly  constitutional.  The  right  to  acquire  territory  was  a 
sovereign  right,  and  as  such  belonged  to  each  one  of  the  origi- 
nal thirteen  sovereign  States.  IBut  a  State  could  not  acquire 
territory  except  by  conquest  or  purchase.  Conquest  came  of 
the  war  powers ;  purchase  belonged  to  the  treaty  powers. 
But  the  States,  when  they  ratified  the  Constitution,  surren- 
dered to  the  Federal  Government  the  powers  of  levying  war 
and  making  treaties.  They  had,  therefore,  with  this  surren- 
der, lost  the  right  to  acquire  new  soil  by  conquest  or  purchase, 
and  had  given  it  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  As 
to  the  preference  given  to  New  Orleans,  the  language  of  the 
Constitution  is  "ports  of  one  State."  "Whatever  might  be- 
come of  Louisiana  in  the  future,  it  was  not  then  a  State ;  it 
was  a  Territory  bought  by  the  United  States.  It  was  in  the 
condition  of  a  colony  whose  commerce  could  be  regulated 
without  reference  to  any  provisions  in  the  Constitution  re- 
garding States.  The  right  to  provide  for  the  general  welfare, 
again,  was  surely  a  treaty  power.  Why  not,  then,  increase 
our  domain,  if  conducive  to  the  general  welfare  ? 

This,  the  Federalists  replied,  has  nothing  to  do  with  the 
question  in  dispute.  It  is  not  denied  that  we  can  purchase 
and  hold  Louisiana,  but  it  is  denied  that  either  Louisiana  or 
any  other  foreign  country  can  be  incorporated  into  the  Union 


8     GOVERNMENT  AND  BOUNDARY  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xiv. 

by  treaty.  As  this  country  has  been  ceded  to  the  United  States 
on  condition  of  incorporation,  and  as  this  condition  is  uncon- 
stitutional, the  treaty  and  the  cession  fall  to  the  ground. 

The  Republicans  were  determined  the  treaty  should  not 
fall  to  the  ground,  and,  by  a  vote  of  ninety  to  twenty-five,  car- 
ried three  resolutions  in  the  Committee  of  the  Whole.  The 
first  declared  that  provisions  ought  to  be  made  to  put  the 
treaty  into  effect.  The  second  sent  to  a  special  committee 
that  part  of  the  President's  message  which  related  to  a  pro- 
visional government.  The  third  sent  the  convention  relating 
to  the  payment  of  sixty  millions  of  francs  to  the  Committee  of 
Ways  and  Means.  In  these  the  House  concurred. 

"When  the  bill  to  create  stock  to  be  issued  in  part  payment 
of  Louisiana  came  up  in  the  Senate,  the  constitutionality  of 
the  treaty  was  again  debated.  Each  side  took  the  same  ground 
and  employed  the  same  arguments  their  friends  had  used  in 
the  House.  Indeed,  nothing  new  was  said  by  either  party  till 
Mr.  Timothy  Pickering  startled  the  Federalists  with  an  argu- 
ment that  might  have  been  made  by  the  warmest  States-rights 
man  that  heard  it.  To  his  mind,  the  treaty  between  the 
United  States  and  France  was  unconstitutional  because  it  con- 
tained a  stipulation  no  power  then  existing  could  carry  out. 
In  the  third  article  were  the  words  "the  inhabitants  of  the 
ceded  territory  shall  be  incorporated  into  the  Union  of  the 
United  States."  But  who,  he  would  like  to  know,  was  com- 
petent to  carry  out  such  an  act  ?  The  President  and  Senate 
were  not;  the  President  and  Congress  were  not.  Neither 
could  it  be  accomplished  by  an  amendment  to  the  Constitu- 
tion passed  by  two  thirds  of  both  Houses  and  ratified  by  three 
fourths  of  the  States.  He  firmly  believed  the  assent  of  each 
and  every  individual  State  was  necessary  before  a  foreign  coun- 
try could  join  the  Union. 

The  case  was  like  that  of  a  commercial  house  where  the 
leave  of  each  of  the  old  partners  must  be  had  before  a  new 
one  could  come  in.  The  Constitution  did  indeed  declare 
"  new  States  may  be  admitted  by  Congress  into  this  Union." 
But  the  words  meant  domestic  States,  not  foreign  States. 
They  meant  States  carved  out  of  the  territory  owned  by  the 
United  States  when  "this  Union"  was  formed.  His  argu- 


1803.  THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT.  9 

ment  fell  on  dull  ears,  and,  when  the  yeas  and  nays  were 
taken,  the  yeas  had  it  by  twenty-six  to  five. 

Thus  were  settled  two  constitutional  principles  of  great 
importance.  The  first  established  the  right  of  the  President 
and  Senate  to  buy  foreign  soil ;  to  this  both  Federalists  and 
Republicans  agreed.  The  second  established  the  fact  that 
foreign  soil  could,  by  the  treaty  power,  be  incorporated  into 
the  Union.  These  questions  disposed  of,  a  third — How  shall 
the  country  thus  acquired  be  governed  ? — at  once  arose.  The 
Senate  was  first  to  attempt  an  answer  in  a  bill  to  authorize 
the  President  to  take  possession  of  the  territory.  By  it,  till 
such  time  as  Congress  should  provide  a  temporary  govern- 
ment for  Louisiana,  all  the  military,  all  the  civil  and  judicial 
powers  were  to  be  vested  in  such  persons  and  exercised  in 
such  manner  as  the  President  should  direct.  To  the  Feder- 
alists the  purpose  and  the  meaning  of  this  bill  were  as  plain 
as  they  were  outrageous.  Between  the  day  when  the  United 
States  should  take  possession  and  the  day  when  Congress 
should  provide  a  temporary  government  some  time  must 
necessarily  elapse.  During  this  time  the  old  form  of  govern- 
ment, based  on  the  worst  form  of  Spanish  despotism,  was  to 
be  continued.  Jefferson  was  to  take  the  place  of  King 
Charles,  and,  without  even  consulting  the  Senate,  fill  every 
place,  from  governor,  intendant,  alcalde,  down  to  keeper  of 
the  public  stores,  with  creatures  of  his  own ;  it  was,  in  short, 
to  legalize  on  the  soil  of  the  United  States  a  government  under 
which  the  people  possessed  no  civil  rights ;  nay,  could  be 
punished  for  even  wishing  to  enjoy  them.  The  bill  was 
therefore  declared  by  the  Federalists  to  be  unconstitutional. 
It  was  combining  in  the  hands  of  the  President  legislative, 
executive,  and  judicial  power;  for  he  was  not  only  to  ap- 
point public  officers,  but  to  determine  in  what  manner  they 
should  act. 

This,  said  the  Republicans,  is  very  far  from  being  the  case. 
The  President  is  not  to  exercise  one  of  the  powers ;  he  is  to 
choose  the  men  who  are  to  exercise  certain  powers,  and  noth- 
ing more.  But  even  if  the  bill  did  combine  in  his  hands 
powers  legislative,  executive,  and  judicial,  it  would  still  be  a 
proper  bill.  Whatever  limitations  the  Constitution  may  fix 


10  GOVERNMENT  AND  BOUNDARY  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xiv. 

to  the  power  of  Congress  over  the  States,  it  fixes  none  to  the 
power  of  Congress  over  the  Territories.  The  Constitution  is 
made  for  the  States  and  not  for  the  Territories.  It  does  not 
extend  to  the  Territories.  What  else  is  the  meaning  of  the 
words,  "  Congress  shall  have  power  to  make  all  needful  rules 
and  regulations  respectmg  the  territory  and  other  property 
belonging  to  the  United  States "  ?  Is  not  this  grant  unlim- 
ited ?  Has  it  not  always  been  so  construed  ?  "Who  makes  laws 
in  the  Territories  of  Indiana  and  Mississippi  ?  The  people  ? 
No.  The  Congress  ?  No ;  the  Governor  and  the  judges 
appointed  by  the  President  with  the  consent  of  the  Senate. 
Could  we  pass  such  a  law  for  the  government  of  a  State  ?  We 
certainly  could  not.  Does  not  this  show  that  the  Constitution 
is  inoperative  in  the  Territories  ?  We  are  to  govern  Louisiana 
not  by  right  of  any  grant  of  power  expressed  in  the  Consti- 
tution, but  by  right  of  acquisition,  and  this  right  we  are  to  use 
as  we  think  fit.  The  House  thought  this  reasoning  sound, 
and,  after  making  two  trivial  amendments,  sent  the  bill  back 
to  the  Senate.  The  Senate  refused  to  accept  the  amendments. 
A  conference  followed ;  the  amendments  were  retained,  and 
the  signature  of  the  President  made  the  bill  a  law.*  This  act, 
the  first  of  the  session,  was  now  followed  by  two  others.  One 
directed  the  issue  of  stock  with  which  to  pay  France  for 
Louisiana.f  The  other  provided  for  the  payment  of  three 
and  three  quarter  millions  of  dollars  to  the  citizens  of  the 
United  States  holding  the  claims  against  France  assumed  by 
the  United  States  in  the  treaty 4 

Nothing  now  remained  but  to  make  over  the  ceded  coun- 
try to  the  United  States.  It  had  not  as  yet  been  delivered  to 
France ;  but  for  this  purpose  His  Catholic  Majesty  had  com- 
missioned the  Marquis  of  Cassa  Calvo  and  Don  Juan  Manuel 
de  Salcedo,  and  Napoleon  had  sent  over  Peter  Clement  Laus- 

*  Approved  October  81,  1803. 

f  The  amount  authorized  was  $11,250,000,  bearing  interest  at  six  per  centum 
per  annum,  and  redeemable  in  four  annual  instalments.  The  Convention  pro- 
vided that  the  final  payment  should  be  made  fifteen  years  after  the  exchange  of 
ratifications.  But  the  law  of  November  10,  1803,  provided  for  shortening  this 
period. 

\  This  act  set  aside  $3,760,000,  of  which  $3,738,268.98  were  used.  The  total 
coat  of  Louisiana  was,  to  June  30,  1880,  $27,267,621.98. 


1803.  DELIVERY  OF  NEW  ORLEANS.  H 

sat.  These  three  on  the  thirtieth  of  November,  followed  by  a 
great  crowd  of  priests  and  people,  went  to  the  hall  of  the 
Cabildo.  There  at  high  noon  Laussat  delivered  the  order  of 
the  King  of  Spain  for  the  transfer  of  the  province  to  France, 
and  displayed  his  authority  from  the  First  Consul  to  receive 
it.  Salcedo  thereupon  gave  up  the  keys  of  New  Orleans. 
Cassa  Calvo  from  the  balcony  absolved  the  people  from  all 
allegiance  to  Spain,  and,  in  the  presence  of  the  troops  assem- 
bled on  the  Place  d'Armes,  the  banner  of  Spain  was  lowered, 
the  tricolor  raised,  and  the  dominion  of  Spain  in  Louisiana 
was  ended  forever. 

Laussat  brought  with  him  no  French  troops.  The  Ameri- 
can Commissioners  had  not  yet  come,  and  it  was  feared  that, 
when  the  Spanish  soldiers  left,  New  Orleans  would  be  given 
over  to  plunder  and  rapine.  The  free  negroes,  the  Mexicans, 
all  the  debased  and  lawless  members  of  the  community,  would 
rise,  it  was  thought,  the  moment  they  ceased  to  feel  the  re- 
straint of  military  government,  and  begin  to  burn,  rob,  mur- 
der, and  destroy.  So  likely  did  this  seem  that  Americans 
whom  business  or  pleasure  had  brought  to  the  city — ship  cap- 
tains and  mates,  supercargoes,  merchants,  clerks,  and  seamen — 
formed  a  volunteer  company,  and,  joined  by  a  few  young 
Creoles,  offered  their  services  to  Laussat.  He  gladly  accepted 
them,  and  thenceforth  armed  bands  patrolled  the  streets  by 
day  and  by  night. 

While  these  men  were  keeping  order  at  New  Orleans,  Jef- 
ferson was  hurrying  on  the  preparations  for  receiving  the 
province  from  France;  and  well  he  might  hurry,  for  the 
Spanish  Minister,  in  the  name  of  his  master,  had  three  times 
protested  against  the  sale.*  France,  he  claimed,  had  not  made 
good  the  conditions  in  the  treaty  of  San  Ildef  onso.  By  that 
treaty  she  was  to  secure  the  recognition  of  the  King  of  Tus- 
cany by  all  the  powers  of  Europe.  No  such  recognition  had 
been  obtained  either  from  the  court  of  London  or  the  court  of 
St.  Petersburg.  Louisiana,  therefore,  did  not  belong  to  France, 
and,  not  being  hers,  she  could  not  sell  it  to  the  United  States,  f 

*  September  4,  1803  ;  September  24,  1803  ;  October  12,  1803. 
f  El  Marquis  de  Casa  Yrujo  to  Madison,  September  24,  1803. 


12  GOVERNMENT  AND  BOUNDARY  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xiv. 

Fearing  that  the  protests  at  "Washington  might  be  followed  by 
armed  resistance  at  New  Orleans,  Jefferson  made  ready  to 
meet  force  with  force.  He  ordered  part  of  the  militia  of 
Ohio,  of  Kentucky,  and  of  Tennessee  to  be  in  readiness  to 
march  at  a  moment's  notice,  gathered  some  troops  at  Fort 
Adams,  sent  others  to  Natchez,  and  bade  Governor  Claiborne 
bring  some  with  him  from  Mississippi. 

"William  Charles  Cole  Claiborne  had  just  reached  his 
twenty-eighth  year.  He  was  a  native  of  Virginia  and  traced 
descent  from  that  William  Claiborne  whose  struggle  with  the 
family  of  Lord  Baltimore  fills  so  large  a  place  in  the  early 
history  of  Maryland  and  Virginia.  He  received  his  education 
at  the  Richmond  Academy  and  spent  some  time  at  William 
and  Mary  College.  But  his  father  was  poor ;  he  was  forced 
to  make  his  own  way  in  the  world,  and,  when  scarcely  fifteen, 
set  off  in  a  sloop  for  New  York.  There  the  first  Congress 
under  the  Constitution  was  in  session,  the  clerk  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  was  John  Beckley,  and  to  him  as  an  old 
family  friend  young  Claiborne  applied  for  work.  A  place 
was  made  for  him  in  Beckley's  office,  and  for  four  years  he 
filed  papers,  prepared  the  journal  for  the  printer,  read  proof, 
and  made  friends.  In  1Y90  Congress  moved  to  Philadelphia, 
and  there  he  was  much  in  the  company  of  two  men  to  whose 
advice  and  friendship  his  political  career  was  largely  due.  One 
was  Thomas  Jefferson,  then  Secretary  of  State  ;  the  other  was 
John  Sevier,  delegate  from  the  territory  south  of  the  river 
Ohio.  By  Sevier  he  was  urged  to  read  law  and  go  West. 
Acting  on  this  advice,  he  went  back  to  Richmond,  spent  three 
months  reading  Blackstone  and  the  Virginia  laws,  took  out  a 
license,  and  started  for  Tennessee.  For  a  while  he  attempted 
to  practice  at  Nashville  ;  but  his  clients  were  very  few,  life  on 
the  frontier  far  from  enjoyable,  and  he  began  to  think  seri- 
ously of  going  back  to  Richmond,  when  the  people  of  Tennes- 
see called  a  convention  to  frame  a  Constitution  for  a  State. 
To  this  convention  Claiborne  was  sent  as  a  delegate.  Under 
the  Constitution  thus  formed,  the  State  of  Tennessee  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  Union  in  1796.  John  Sevier  was  the  first  gov- 
ernor, and  by  his  influence  the  Legislature  made  Claiborne 
one  of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Law  and  Equity. 


1803.  DELIVERY  OF  NEW  ORLEANS.  13 

Hardly  was  he  seated  on  the  bench  when  William  Blount  was 
expelled  from  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  when  Blount's 
place  in  the  Senate  was  given  to  Andrew  Jackson,  the  represen- 
tative, and  Claiborne  was  sent  to  take  the  seat  of  Jackson  in  the 
House.  His  election  was  a  flat  violation  of  the  Constitution, 
for  he  was  not  twenty-five  years  old.  In  Congress  he  sat  till 
1801.  In  the  memorable  contested  election  of  that  year  he 
held  the  vote  of  Tennessee  and  cast  it  regularly  for  his  old 
friend  Jefferson.  His  reward  was  not  long  delayed,  and  in 
1802  he  was  sent  by  Jefferson  to  govern  Mississippi  Territory 
in  place  of  Winthrop  Sargent,  whose  term  had  just  expired. 
Living  so  near  New  Orleans,  he  was  now  chosen  one  of  the 
Commissioners  to  receive  Louisiana  from  France.  With  him 
on  the  mission  was  joined  General  James  Wilkinson.  The 
two  met  at  Fort  Adams  in  December  and  at  once  set  out  for 
New  Orleans.  The  time  fixed  for  the  entrance  into  the  city 
was  Tuesday  the  twentieth.  Early  on  that  day  the  American 
troops,  with  the  bands  playing  the  airs  of  France  and  the 
United  States,  moved  in  order  of  battle  to  the  city  gates.  There 
the  Spanish  troops  in  like  order  received  and  then  escorted 
them  to  the  Cabildo  on  the  Place  d'Armes,  where  the  Com- 
missioners exhibited  their  credentials  to  Laussat. 

When  the  credentials  of  the  American  Commissioners,  the 
treaty,  and  the  powers  of  the  French  Commissioners  to  transfer 
Louisiana  had  been  read  to  the  crowd  that  filled  the  Cabildo, 
the  delivery  of  the  Province  to  the  United  States  was  proclaimed, 
the  keys  of  the  city  were  handed  to  Claiborne,  and  the  subjects 
of  France  absolved  by  Laussat  from  allegiance  to  the  First 
Consul.  Claiborne  then  bade  them  welcome  as  citizens  of  the 
United  States.  They  were  assured  that  their  liberty,  their 
property,  their  religion,  were  safe  ;  that  their  commerce  should 
flourish,  that  their  agriculture  should  be  protected,  and  that 
they  should  never  again  be  transferred.* 

The  speech  made,  the  Commissioners  passed  out  into  one 
of  the  balconies  that  looked  down  on  the  Place  d'Armes 

*  In  thi3  transfer  Upper  Louisiana  was  not  included.  Indeed,  it  was  not  till 
March  9,  1804,  that  Major  Amos  Stoddard,  as  agent  of  the  French  Republic,  re- 
ceived Upper  Louisiana  from  the  representatives  of  Spain.  On  March  10,  1804, 
Major  Stoddard  delivered  the  Upper  Province  to  the  United  States. 


14  GOVERNMENT  AND  BOUNDARY  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xiv. 

crowded  with  men  of  six  nationalities,  where  the  tricolor 
which  for  twenty  days  had  floated  over  the  city  was  slowly 
lowered  and  the  stars  and  stripes  slowly  raised  till  they  met 
midway  of  the  staff  and  were  saluted.  The  flag  of  the  United 
States  was  then  raised,  while  that  of  France  was  drawn  down 
and  delivered  into  the  hands  of  a  French  officer.  As  he 
marched  off  toward  the  barracks  with  the  flag  wrapped  about 
his  waist,  the  Commissioners  went  back  to  the  hall  of  the 
Cabildo  and  to  a  fine  dinner  made  ready  for  them  by  the  order 
of  Laussat. 

To  the  crowd  that  stood  that  day  on  the  Place  d'Armes 
the  promise  of  Claiborne  that  this  transfer  should  be  the  last 
meant  nothing,  for,  within  the  lifetime  of  men  then  living, 
Louisiana  had  changed  her  rulers  six  times.  Ninety-one  years 
before,  when  scarcely  a  thousand  white  men  dwelt  on  her  soil, 
Louis  XIY  had  farmed  Louisiana  to  Antoine  Crozat,  the  mer- 
chant monopolist  of  his  day.  Crozat,  unable  to  use  it,  made 
it  over  in  1717"  to  John  Law,  Director-General  of  the  Missis- 
sippi Company,  which  surrendered  it  in  1731  to  Louis  XV, 
who  gave  it  in  1762  to  the  King  of  Spain,  who  made  it  over 
to  Napoleon,  who  sold  it  to  the  United  States. 

In  none  of  these  many  transfers  was  anything  approaching 
a  complete  and  accurate  boundary  ever  drawn.  When  Clai- 
borne received  it  on  behalf  of  the  United  States  the  eastern 
boundary  was  the  Mississippi  river  from  its  source  to  the 
parallel  of  thirty-one  degrees.  But  where  the  source  of  the 
Mississippi  was  no  man  knew,  and  what  became  of  the  eastern 
boundary  below  the  parallel  of  thirty-one  degrees  was  long 
unsettled.  Americans  claimed  at  least  as  far  as  the  Perdido 
river ;  but  Spain  would  acknowledge  no  claim  east  of  the 
Mississippi  and  below  thirty-one  degrees,  save  the  island  of 
New  Orleans.  The  south  boundary  was,  of  course,  the  Gulf ; 
but  whether  it  went  to  the  Sabine  or  the  Bio  Bravo  was  still 
unknown.  The  mountains,  wherever  they  might  be,  were 
believed  to  bound  it  on  the  west,  and  the  possessions  of 
Great  Britain,  wherever  they  might  be,  to  bound  it  on  the 
north. 

The  territory  shut  in  by  these  vague  and  general  bounda- 
ries had  been  parted  by  the  Spaniards  into  two  great  divisions. 


1803.  SETTLEMENTS  IN  LOUISIANA.  15 

The  Creole  who  spoke  of  Louisiana  was  understood  to  mean 
the  island  of  New  Orleans  and  so  much  territory  as  lay  west 
of  the  Mississippi  from  the  Gulf  to  the  town  of  New  Madrid. 
All  above  New  Madrid  passed  by  the  name  of  Spanish  Illi- 
nois and  sometimes  of  Upper  Louisiana.  A  rude  census  taken 
in  1799  gave  to  Upper  Louisiana  a  population  of  six  thousand 
souls,  and  scattered  them  among  a  dozen  petty  settlements 
hard  by  the  banks  of  the  Missouri  and  the  Mississippi.  To 
Louisiana  were  given  thirty-six  thousand.  Of  these,  some 
thirty-f our  thousand  dwelt  below  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas. 

Indeed,  the  boatmen  who  steered  the  broadhorns  as  they 
floated  down  the  Mississippi  saw  no  town  on  the  western  bank 
between  New  Madrid  and  Pointe  Coupee  save  the  huts  of  a 
few  Indian  traders  at  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas  and  a 
wretched  hamlet  called  Concord  opposite  Natchez.  Up  the 
Red  river  were  Eapide  and  Avoyelles  and  Natchitoches,  which 
boasted  of  a  population  of  sixteen  hundred  souls  and  of  a  great 
trade  with  Mexico.  Below  Pointe  Coupee  were  three  fourths 
of  all  the  people  and  seven  eighths  of  all  the  wealth  of  Louisi- 
ana. The  plantations,  the  cotton-fields,  the  houses  became 
more  plentiful  as  the  traveller  floated  by  the  straggling  settle- 
ments of  Baton  Rouge,  of  Manchoc  Parish,  of  Iberville,  below 
which  cotton-fields  and  sugar-fields  followed  in  unbroken  suc- 
cession to  New  Orleans. 

To  the  Americans  business  or  curiosity  brought  to  Louisi- 
ana, the  land  and  the  people  and  the  great  city  were  a  never- 
failing  source  of  interest  and  wonder.  They  filled  their  letters 
with  accounts  of  the  wide,  yellow,  tortuous  river  rushing  along 
for  hundreds  of  miles  without  a  tributary  of  any  kind ;  of  the 
levees  that  shut  in  the  waters  and  kept  their  surface  high 
above  all  the  neighboring  country ;  of  the  bayous  where  the 
alligators  basked  in  the  sunshine ;  of  the  strange  vegetation  of 
the  cypress  swamps  and  the  palmettos ;  of  the  hanging  moss, 
of  the  sloughs  swarming  with  reptiles,  of  the  pelicans,  of  the 
buzzards,  of  the  herons,  of  the  fiddler  crabs,  of  houses  without 
cellars,  and  of  cemeteries  where  there  was  no  such  thing  as  a 
grave  which  had  been  dug.  The  town  had  been  laid  out  in 
1720  by  the  Sieur  La  Blonde  de  la  Tour,  acting  under  orders 
of  Bienville,  and  had  been  laid  out  with  all  the  regularity  of 


16  GOVERNMENT  AND  BOUNDARY  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xiv. 

a  military  camp.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  crescent  shape  of 
the  river  front,  the  plan  would  have  been  a  parallelogram. 
On  the  three  land  sides  were  low  ramparts  at  right  angles  to 
each  other.  On  the  river  side  was  the  levee.  From  the  gate 
of  France  on  the  north  to  the  gate  of  Tchoupitoulas  on  the 
south  the  distance  was  a  mile,  and  precisely  in  the  middle  of 
the  mile  was  the  Place  d'Armes.  From  the  river  back  to  the 
rampart  which  shut  out  the  waters  of  the  cypress  swamp  the 
distance  was  one  third  of  a  mile.  Within  these  limits  the 
streets  were  laid  out  at  right  angles,  were  each  thirty-two 
French  feet  wide,  and  bore  the  names  of  the  dukes  and  princes 
of  France.  One  was  Chartres,  another  was  Orleans,  another 
Maine,  another  Bourbon,  another  Toulouse.  Still  others  were 
named  Conti  and  Conde,  and  to  these  in  time  were  added 
Dauphine  and  St.  Louis. 

Between  the  day  when  Bienville  took  up  his  headquarters 
at  New  Orleans  and  the  day  when  Claiborne  received  the  keys 
of  its  gates  the  town  had  grown  much  but  changed  little. 
The  old  fortifications  had  been  much  improved  in  1798,  and  a 
slimy  ditch,  backed  by  an  earth  rampart  and  a  wooden  palisade, 
now  surrounded  the  city.  A  few  rusty  guns  mounted  on  five 
huge  bastions  constituted  the  chief  defence.  One  bastion 
stood  at  each  of  the  four  corners.  The  fifth  was  in  the  rear  of 
the  city.  The  people  still  went  in  and  out  through  four  gate- 
ways guarded  by  sentries  all  day  and  carefully  shut  each  night 
at  nine.  The  four  gates  closed  four  thoroughfares.  Through 
the  river  gate  of  France  went  the  road  to  the  plantations  down 
the  river.  Through  another  went  the  bayou  road,  along 
which  was  just  beginning  to  spring  up  the  fashionable  Fau- 
bourg St.- Jean.  Through  the  so.uthern  river  gate  went  the 
Tchoupitoulas  road,  and  on  this,  where  the  plantation  of  the 
Jesuit  fathers  had  once  been,  was  the  Faubourg  Ste.-Marie. 
Of  late  years  so  many  thousands  of  strangers,  Frenchmen  and 
Irishmen,  Spaniards  and  Americans,  had  come  to  New  Orleans 
that  a  new  city  was  fast  growing  without  the  ramparts  of  the 
old. 

"With  the  strangers  had  come  ships,  commerce,  and  trade. 
Along  the  once  sleepy  levee,  where  in  former  times  a  dozen 
ships  could  rarely  have  been  counted,  were  now  to  be  seen  two 


1803.  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  ORLEANS.  17 

hundred  ships  and  river  craft  drawn  up  three  deep.  It  was 
mentioned  with  pride  that  in  1802  the  products  exported 
were  worth  two  millions  of  dollars,  that  the  imports  had 
reached  two  millions  and  a  half,  and  that  ships  registering  in 
all  thirty  thousand  tons — about  the  capacity  of  four  ocean 
steamers — had  sailed  from  the  port  loaded.  The  condition 
of  the  city,  however,  gave  no  indication  of  this  commercial 
prosperity.  The  streets,  save  a  few,  were  unpaved,  undrained, 
and  as  filthy  as  in  the  days  of  Bienville  and  De  la  Tour.  Each 
heavy  thunder-storm  turned  the  city  into  a  pond  and  filled  the 
streets  from  side  to  side  inches  deep  with  water.  The  mild- 
est rain  made  them  impassable  with  mud.  In  dry  seasons 
they  were  rough  with  the  mounds  thrown  up  by  the  crayfish. 
The  buildings  which  bordered  the  streets  were  the  admira- 
tion of  every  traveller.  Men  accustomed  to  the  architecture 
of  the  cities  of  the  North  looked  with  wonder  on  the  endless 
variety  of  form  and  the  confusion  of  color  displayed  on  every 
side.  Some  were  of  adobe  with  half-cylindrical  tiled  roofs. 
Some  were  of  brick  covered  with  yellow  stucco  faded  and 
streaked  by  the  sun  and  rain.  On  every  hand  were  arcades 
and  inner  courts,  open  galleries  and  porte-cocheres,  veran- 
das, lattices,  dormer  windows,  and  belvederes.  No  city  in 
the  North  could  produce  such  specimens  of  wrought-iron 
work  as  adorned  the  balconies  and  were  to  be  seen  in  the 
gateways,  the  transoms,  the  window  gratings  of  the  houses  in 
New  Orleans.  No  city  could  boast  a  finer  public  building 
than  the  Cabildo ;  no  city  could  show  a  finer  church  than  the 
St.  Louis  Cathedral.  Yet  among  all  these  buildings  not  an 
exchange,  not  a  tavern  was  to  be  seen ;  the  levee  and  the  cof- 
fee-houses did  duty  instead.  Men  who  came  to  trade  took 
up  their  quarters  in  the  boarding-houses  kept  by  mulattoes, 
and  sought  for  the  merchants  on  the  levee.  There,  during 
the  morning  of  each  week-day,  bales  of  cotton,  casks  of  mo- 
lasses, tobacco,  sugar,  flour,  all  the  produce  of  Louisiana  and 
all  the  produce  of  the  Northwest,  from  hams  and  pork  to  the 
broadhorns  which  bore  them  down  the  Mississippi,  were  bought 
and  sold.  There  in  the  cool  of  the  day  the  people  came  to 
enjoy  the  air.  Hardly  had  the  sun  set  when  the  whole 
town  was  astir.  The  coffee-houses  then  became  crowded, 

VOL.   III. — 3 


18  GOVERNMENT  AND  BOUNDARY  OF  LOUISIANA.  OHAP.  xiv. 

the  billiard-rooms  grew  noisy,  the  levee  swarmed  with  peo- 
ple. Some  came  to  take  part  in  the  dancing  and  drinking, 
the  carousing  and  singing  that  went  on  upon  the  decks  of  the 
boats  moored  to  the  river  bank.  Some  came  to  walk.  Some 
to  seek  a  mistress  among  the  quadroons  who,  with  their 
chaperons  or  their  mothers,  sat  under  the  orange-trees  that 
still  lined  the  river-bank.  The  lot  of  these  women  was  indeed 
an  unhappy  one !  Their  stain  of  white  blood  raised  them  far 
above  the  negroes ;  their  stain  of  negro  blood  dragged  them 
far  below  the  whites.  Law  and  custom  forbade  them  to 
marry  and  left  them  to  drag  out  a  wretched  existence  or  be- 
come the  mistresses  of  the  whites.  To  suppose  that  they  bore 
any  likeness  to  the  prostitutes  who  plied  their  calling  in  the 
Northern  cities  would  be  a  great  mistake.  They  held  a  rec- 
ognized place  in  the  social  scale,  and  that  place,  such  as  it 
was,  no  one  considered  dishonorable.  No  man  addressed 
them  till  he  had  been  properly  introduced.  No  engagement 
was  made  till  the  mother  approved,  and,  once  made,  it  was 
kept  most  faithfully  by  the  woman.  They  could  not,  indeed, 
attend  the  balls  to  which  white  women  went ;  but  their  own 
assemblies  were  accounted  splendid  affairs  and  were  attended 
by  all  the  fine  young  men  in  the  city.  They  could  not  enter 
the  lower  boxes  at  the  theatre,  but  the  upper  boxes  were  set 
apart  for  them,  and  to  these  they  were  made  welcome. 

The  theatre  was  then  open  on  three  nights  each  week. 
The  beating  of  a  drum  gave  notice  of  the  nights,  one  of 
which  was  always  Sunday.  Sunday,  indeed,  was  a  gala  day. 
Travellers  from  the  North  were  horrified  to  see  the  shops  open, 
the  streets  more  gay,  the  market  more  crowded,  the  coffee- 
houses and  the  billiard-rooms  more  frequented,  on  Sunday 
than  on  any  other  day  of  the  week.  Religion,  it  is  true,  was 
not  wholly  neglected.  To  go  to  confession,  to  hear  mass,  to 
say  a  prayer  in  the  cathedral,  were  duties  regularly  performed 
by  even  the  most  careless ;  but,  these  duties  done,  the  rest  of 
the  day  was  spent  in  idleness  and  the  pursuit  of  pleasure.  To 
drop  in  at  some  coffee-house  for  a  game  of  cards ;  to  look  on 
while  an  exciting  game  of  billiards  was  played ;  to  saunter  to 
the  rear  of  the  city  where  on  the  marshes  the  negroes  wor- 
shipped the  spirits  of  good  and  evil  with  all  the  barbaric  rites 


1803.  SPANISH  RULERS  OF  NEW  ORLEANS.  19 

of  Africa ;  to  see  a  new  play  at  the  theatre,  attend  a  masked 
ball,  or  go  out  by  the  bayou  road  for  a  dance  at  the  famous 
Tivoli  Garden  and  hurry  back  before  the  gates  were  shut  and 
the  Alcalde  and  the  Alguazil  began  their  rounds,  were  the 
favorite  amusements  of  the  day. 

The  Alcalde  formed  part  of  a  municipal  government  as 
strange  to  an  American  as  the  city  and  its  people.  Over  New 
Orleans  and  its  dependencies  in  Spanish  days  presided  a  Ca- 
bildo,  or  City  Council  of  six  hereditary  Regidors;  two  Alcal- 
des, a  Procureur-General,  a  Secretary,  and  the  Governor  of 
the  Province.  Five  of  the  Regidors  held  offices  of  great 
weight.  One  was  known  as  Alferez  Royal,  and  bore  the 
royal  banner ;  another  was  Alcalde  Mayor  Provincial ;  another, 
Alguazil  Mayor;  a  fourth,  Depository-General;  a  fifth,  Re- 
ceiver of  penas  de  camara,  or  fines  for  the  use  of  the  royal 
treasury.  The  Governor  presided  over  the  Cabildo,  and  met 
it  in  the  City  Hall  on  Friday  of  each  week  and  on  the  first  day 
of  each  new  year.  At  the  weekly  meetings  such  business  was 
done  as  concerned  the  city  and  the  province.  At  the  new- 
year  meeting  the  Cabildo  chose  two  Judges  or  Alcaldes  Ordi- 
nary, the  Procureur-General,  and  a  Mayordome  de  propres,  or 
manager  of  rents  and  city  taxes.  The  Alcaldes  were  judges  of 
civil  and  criminal  law ;  never  appeared  in  public  without  their 
wands  of  office ;  visited  the  prisons  each  Friday,  examined  the 
prisoners,  and  set  free  such  debtors  as  seemed  fit  subjects  of 
mercy.  Each  night  one  of  the  Alcaldes,  with  the  Alguazil 
Mayor  and  the  Scrivener,  walked  the  streets  of  the  city  to  see 
that  the  laws  were  obeyed  and  that  peace  and  quiet  prevailed. 
Three  times  each  year,  on  the  eves  of  Christmas,  of  Easter,  and 
of  Pentecost,  the  Governor  went  the  rounds  of  the  prisons  with 
the  Alcaldes,  and  never  failed  to  set  some  petty  criminals  free. 
The  authority  of  the  Alcaldes  spread  over  the  city  and  five 
leagues  around  it.  At  this  limit  the  rule  of  the  Alcalde  Mayor 
Provincial  began.  Before  him  came  every  offender  who  had 
done  his  deed  out  of  the  bounds  of  New  Orleans,  or  the  vil- 
lages ;  or,  having  done  it  in  the  city  or  the  villages,  fled  for 
refuge  to  the  country.  And  woe  to  the  criminal  who,  friend- 
less and  rankless,  came  before  this  Alcalde !  For  him  justice 
was  speedy  and  sure.  If  he  had  reviled  the  Saviour  or  the 


20  GOVERNMENT  AND  BOUNDARY  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xiy. 

Blessed  Virgin,  his  property  was  confiscated  and  his  tongue 
cut  out.  If  he  had  vilified  the  King  or  the  Queen,  or  any 
member  of  the  Royal  Family,  half  his  property  was  taken 
and  he  was  well  flogged.  If  he  had  stolen  the  sacred  ves- 
sels from  a  holy  place,  or  had  robbed  a  traveller  on  the 
King's  highway,  or  had  murdered  a  fellow-creature,  or  assault- 
ed a  woman,  he  was  given  over  to  the  Alguazil  to  be  put  to 
death  with  every  mark  of  shame.  The  property  of  the  rav- 
isher  was  given  to  the  victim.  The  murderer  was  dragged  to 
execution  at  the  tail  of  a  horse.  False  witnesses  were  exposed 
to  public  shame  and  banished.  Adulterers  were  given  over  to 
the  injured  husband  to  do  with  as  he  would.  But  if  he  put 
the  man  to  death  he  must  the  woman  also. 

Not  one  of  these  laws  was  printed,  save  in  the  form  of  a 
digest,  prepared  and  proclaimed  by  the  first  Spanish  Governor, 
"  Cruel  O'Reilly."  They  did  not  exist  even  in  writing.  The 
Abogado,  whose  business  it  was  to  give  legal  advice  to  the 
Governor,  and  whom  the  judges  consulted  on  points  of  law ; 
the  Assessor,  who  performed  a  like  duty  to  the  Intendant; 
the  judges  and  the  three  attorneys  knew  the  laws,  but  none 
others.  In  general,  then,  the  decisions  of  the  courts  were  such 
as  the  judges  thought  proper,  not  such  as  the  law  prescribed. 

Of  courts,  Louisiana  may  be  said  to  have  had  five.  There 
was  the  Governor's  court,  with  civil  and  military  jurisdiction 
over  all  the  province.  There  was  the  Intendant's  court,  where 
cases  in  admiralty  and  revenue  suits  were  tried.  There  was 
the  court  of  the  two  alcaldes  of  New  Orleans,  the  tribunal  of 
Alcalde  Provincial,  and  the  ecclesiastical  tribunal,  with  juris- 
diction over  all  matters  concerning  the  church.  But  there 
were  besides  these  a  host  of  petty  magistrates  and  officers  en- 
dowed with  judicial  functions ;  Alcaldes  de  barios  for  the  city ; 
syndics  and  commandants  for  the  country.  The  Alcaldes  de 
barios  were  four  in  number,  presided  over  the  four  quarters 
of  New  Orleans,  and  tried  any  case  of  less  than  ten  dollars' 
value.  The  commandants  of  the  posts  and  districts  heard 
suits  involving  sums  of  less  than  one  hundred  dollars.  The 
syndics  were  the  busiest  of  all.  They  policed  the  roads,  they 
guarded  the  levees,  and  kept  a  careful  watch  over  coasters, 
travellers,  and  negroes. 


1803.  SPANISH  EULEES  OF  LOUISIANA.  21 

No  sooner  would  a  ship  draw  up  to  the  river  bank  than  a 
syndic,  note-book  in  hand,  would  be  on  board.  He  would  de- 
mand the  captain's  passport.  He  would  examine  the  ship's 
papers,  call  off  the  list  of  the  crew,  peep  into  the  hold  at  the 
cargo,  and  note  down  whence  the  ship  came,  how  long  the 
captain  wanted  to  stay,  and  what  sort  of  a  cargo  he  was  going 
to  buy.  To  travellers  by  land  the  syndics  were  intolerable 
nuisances.  Stationed  along  the  roads  three  leagues  apart,  they 
were  bidden  to  stop  and  question  every  stranger  who  passed 
by.  They  would  read  his  passport,  examine  the  brand  of 
his  horses,  see  that  he  had  no  more  and  no  less  than  the 
passport  called  for,  ask  his  business,  and  require  him  to  tell 
them  the  latest  news.  If  he  told  them  anything  wliich  in 
their  opinion  the  public  ought  not  to  know,  they  made  a  care- 
ful note,  and  forbade  him  to  mention  the  subject  to  a  living 
soul.  They  were,  indeed,  the  censors  of  public  opinion.  They 
affirmed  or  denied  rumors,  explained  the  acts  of  government 
officials,  told  the  people  whatever  it  was  proper  to  know,  and 
kept  themselves  informed  by  carefully  reading  the  "  Moniteur 
de  la  Louisiane." 

The  rulers  of  the  Province  of  Louisiana  were  a  Governor, 
a  Lieutenant-Governor,  who  ruled  Upper  Louisiana;  an  In- 
tendant,  charged  with  the  management  of  trade  and  commerce, 
ships  and  customs ;  and  in  each  one  of  the  innumerable  dis- 
tricts a  Commandant.  Under  the  Intendant  were  the  Conta- 
dor,  who  did  the  work  of  a  modern  controller ;  the  Treasurer, 
who  was  a  mere  cashier ;  the  Interventor,  who  bought  all  pub- 
lic supplies;  the  Surveyor-General,  the  Harbor-master,  the 
Store-keeper,  and  the  Assessor,  who  gave  the  Intendant  legal 
advice.  The  Commandant  was  a  man  of  military  training,  and 
joined  half  a  dozen  offices  in  one.  He  was  a  police  magis- 
trate, kept  the  peace  of  his  district,  examined  travellers,  and 
suffered  none  to  stop  in  the  country  without  his  leave.  He 
was  an  officer  of  the  customs,  and  saw  to  it  that  no  smuggling 
went  on.  He  was  a  land  commissioner,  and  certified  that 
every  acre  petititioned  for  by  the  people  was  vacant  before  it 
was  granted.  He  was  notary  public,  and  registered  the  sale 
of  land  and  slaves.  He  was  a  sheriff,  and  levied  executions  on 
property  and  attended  to  the  sale.  "When  he  commanded  a 


22  GOVERNMENT  AND  BOUNDARY  OF  LOUISIANA.  OHAP.  xiv. 

garrison  of  twenty  men,  he  was  Deputy-Intendant,  and  all 
that  concerned  trade  and  commerce  came  under  his  control. 

It  was  from  trade  and  commerce  that  the  revenue  of  Lou- 
isiana was  chiefly  derived.  Every  ship,  great  or  small,  paid  a 
pilotage  of  twenty  Spanish  milled  dollars,  of  which  seven  went 
into  the  public  treasury.  All  goods  imported  or  exported 
paid  a  duty  of  six  per  cent.  There  were  taxes  on  the  value 
of  all  shipping  sold,*  taxes  on  legacies,!  taxes  on  salaries 
paid  by  the  Government,;}:  taxes  for  offices  bought,  and  taxes 
on  licenses  to  sell  liquor.*  Many  as  were  the  sources  of  reve- 
nue, it  was  a  prosperous  year  whenever  one  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  dollars  came  to  the  treasury  coffers.  As  the 
expenses  of  Government  were  six  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars,  there  was  each  year  a  heavy  deficit.  This  was  made 
good  in  part  by  money  sent  from  La  Yera  Cruz,  and  in  part  by 
the  issue  of  certificates,  which  the  officers  in  the  department 
of  finance  bought  up  at  thirty  per  centum  discount  and  the 
King  redeemed  at  par. 

Such  was  the  province  and  such  the  city  which,  in  Decem- 
ber, 1803,  became  the  property  of  the  United  States.  As  yet 
Louisiana  had  merely  been  taken  possession  of.  Not  an  act 
of  Congress,  not  a  revenue  law,  not  a  custom-house  regulation 
had  been  spread  over  it.  There  were  no  courts  for  the  meting 
out  of  justice  according  to  the  statutes  of  the  United  States. 
There  was  no  officer  from  whom  American  sea-letters,  regis- 
ters, and  licenses  could  be  had  for  ships.  The  need  for  such 
laws  and  papers  was  pressing  and  was  felt  first  by  the  mer- 
chant class.  Indeed,  the  new  year  was  hardly  in  when  a  peti- 
tion from  the  merchants  was  on  its  way  to  Congress.  They 
complained  that  while  owing  allegiance  to  the  United  States, 
they  were  still  subject  to  the  laws  of  Spain ;  that  while  nomi- 
nally enjoying  the  rights  of  American  citizens,  they  were  pay- 
ing import  and  export  duties  according  to  the  Spanish  tariff, 

*  Duty  of  six  per  cent. 

f  Legacies  given  to  heirs  paid  two  per  cent  duty ;  legacies  given  to  strangers 
paid  four  per  cent. 

$  If  greater  than  three  hundred  dollars  per  year. 

*  Forty  dollars  per  year  in  Lower  Louisiana ;   thirty  dollars  in  Upper  Lou- 
isiana. 


1804.  TERRITORY   OF  ORLEANS.  23 

and,  for  want  of  sea-letters  and  coasting  registers,  were  forced 
to  tie  their  ships  to  the  levee  and  see  them  go  to  ruin  and  de- 
cay. The  petition  was  most  timely,  for  the  very  day  it  reached 
the  House  of  Representatives  a  bill  came  down  from  the  Sen- 
ate giving  to  Louisiana  a  government  and  laws.  So  much  of 
the  purchase  as  lay  south  of  the  Mississippi  Territory  and 
south  of  the  thirty-third  parallel  from  the  Mississippi  river  to 
the  western  boundary  of  Louisiana  was  by  the  bill  cut  off  and 
named  the  Territory  of  Orleans.  On  the  rest  was  bestowed 
the  name  District  of  Louisiana.  The  selection  of  laws,  the 
execution  of  laws,  the  administration  of  justice  in  the  District 
of  Louisiana,  were  given  in  charge  to  the  Governor  and  judges 
of  the  Indiana  Territory ;  but  to  Orleans  was  given  a  territorial 
government  of  its  own,  and  over  it  were  spread  twenty-two 
specified  acts  of  Congress. 

The  government,  the  bill  provided,  should  consist  of  a 
Governor,  to  be  appointed  by  the  President  for  three  years ; 
of  a  Secretary  to  hold  office  during  four  years ;  of  a  Legis- 
lative Council  of  thirteen ;  and  of  one  Superior  Court  and  of 
such  inferior  courts  and  justices  as  the  Council  should  see  fit 
to  create.  In  the  stormy  days  of  the  Alien  Act  nobody  had 
been  louder  in  declaring  trial  by  jury  to  be  the  bulwark  of 
civil  liberty  than  Breckenridge,  who  moved  a  committee  to 
bring  in  the  Louisiana  Bill,  and  Jefferson  and  Madison,  who 
are  believed  to  have  framed  it.  Yet  these  men  were  now  not 
ashamed  to  restrict  trial  by  jury  to  criminal  prosecutions  and 
to  civil  suits  in  which  the  sum  involved  was  at  least  one  hun- 
dred dollars. 

With  the  plan  as  a  whole  the  House  had  little  fault  to  find ; 
but  those  particular  sections  which  restricted  trial  by  jury 
and  defined  the  powers  and  manner  of  choosing  the  Council 
aroused  a  fierce  and  stubborn  opposition.  The  thirteen  coun- 
cillors were  to  be  appointed  by  the  President,  and  by  the  Presi- 
dent alone.  The  Senate  was  to  have  no  voice  in  the  approval ; 
the  people  of  the  Territory  were  to  have  no  voice  in  the  selec- 
tion. As  the  people  were  to  have  nothing  to  say  concerning 
who  should  sit  in  the  Council,  so  the  Council  were  to  have 
nothing  to  say  concerning  what  it  should  do.  It  could  not  fix 
the  time  of  meeting  nor  the  time  of  adjournment ;  there  were 


24:  GOVERNMENT  AND  BOUNDARY  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xiv. 

to  be  no  regular  sessions.  The  Governor  was  to  call  them  to- 
gether and  the  Governor  was  to  bid  them  depart ;  and  when 
they  were  assembled  their  legislative  powers  were  to  be  noth- 
ing. It  was  the  Governor  who,  with  the  consent  of  the 
Council,  was  to  repeal  or  amend  the  laws  already  in  force,  and 
it  was  the  Governor  who  was  to  submit  to  them  drafts  of  new 
laws. 

This  bill,  said  the  defenders  of  it,  does  indeed  contain  ele- 
mentary principles  of  government  hitherto  unknown  in  the 
United  States.  But  it  is  also  true  that  the  United  States  has 
never  before  been  called  on  to  set  up  a  government  for  such  a 
peculiar  people.  Nowhere  else  in  the  United  States  can  be 
found  men  speaking  so  many  tongues,  representing  so  many 
races,  showing  so  many  different  manners,  and  living  in 
such  different  ways  as  on  the  soil  of  Louisiana.  There, 
rarely  intermarrying,  never  commingling,  live  Americans, 
Creoles,  Frenchmen  and  Spaniards,  emigrants  from  Malaga 
and  the  Canaries,  wanderers  from  Acadia,  Germans,  Mexicans, 
negroes,  and  men  of  every  grade  of  negro  blood  from  the 
quadroons  and  octoroons  to  mulattoes.  Ruled  for  forty  years 
by  Spanish  officers,  governing  according  to  their  whims  and 
upholding  their  whims  by  show  of  military  force ;  ground 
down  by  monopolies  and  stripped  of  every  semblance  of  hu- 
man rights,  they  cannot  be  considered  as  in  any  sense  fit  for  a 
sudden  gift  of  liberty.  Let  them  have  liberty  by  degrees. 
Let  them  first  show  themselves  fit  to  be  free.  Let  them  learn, 
under  the  mild  and  gentle  rule  of  the  government  we  propose 
to  set  up,  what  are  the  rights  of  free  men,  what  are  the  prin- 
ciples of  free  government,  and  when  they  have  learned  this 
it  will  be  full  time  to  give  the  elective  franchise  and  suffer 
them  to  choose  legislators  for  themselves. 

This  bill,  said  its  enemies,  violates  the  treaty,  the  Constitu- 
tion, and  every  principle  of  American  republican  govern- 
ment. It  does  not  show  one  trace  of  liberty.  It  denies  to  the 
men  of  Orleans  rights  solemnly  promised  them  by  the  treaty 
of  purchase.  It  sets  up  a  complete  despotism.  The  people 
have  nothing  to  say  in  the  choice  of  a  Legislative  Council. 
The  Legislative  Council  have  nothing  to  say  in  the  choice  of 
laws.  The  President  names  the  Governor,  and  the  Governor, 


1804.  TERRITORY  OF  ORLEANS.  25 

in  the  language  of  the  bill,  is  to  "  make  the  laws."  "When  he 
has  made  a  law  he  is  to  lay  it  before  the  Council ;  but  not  for 
the  purpose  of  debate,  of  amendment,  of  correction.  No. 
With  the  air  of  an  Eastern  potentate  he  is  to  say :  Here  is  the 
law ;  will  you  take  it  or  reject  it  ?  There  is  no  chance  given 
them  to  suggest  amendments.  They  must  approve  or  disap- 
prove, and  nothing  more.  And  suppose  they  do  not  approve  ; 
what  then  ?  Why,  the  Governor  may,  if  he  choose,  prorogue 
them,  send  them  home,  and,  as  they  are  not  paid  when  not  in 
session,  such  dismissal  is  the  same  thing  as  taking  money  out  of 
their  pockets.  Thus  it  is  that  the  Governor  has  the  Legislative 
Council  in  his  power.  If  they  will  not  do  his  bidding,  he  will 
not  suffer  them  to  meet,  and  if  they  do  not  meet  they  cannot 
get  any  pay.  Was  there  ever  such  a  government  in  this  coun- 
try since  the  days  of  the  colonial  governors  ?  Was  it  not 
against  just  such  government  as  this  that  the  colonies  re- 
belled? 

But  there  is  yet  another  way  in  which  this  government 
proposed  to  be  set  up  by  this  bill  resembles  the  government 
put  down  by  the  Revolution.  Trial  by  jury  is  not  secured  to 
the  people.  To  this  they  have  a  right.  Does  not  one  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  declare  that  in  all  criminal  prosecu- 
tions the  accused  shall  enjoy- a  speedy  trial  by  jury?  How, 
then,  can  we  say  that  in  Louisiana  there  shall  be  no  jury  trial 
in  criminal  prosecutions  which  are  not  capital  unless  one  of 
the  parties  demand  it  ?  Does  not  another  amendment  to  the 
Constitution  declare  that  in  all  suits  at  common  law  where  the 
value  in  controversy  exceeds  twenty  dollars  the  trial  shall  be 
before  a  jury.  How,  then,  can  we  say  that  in  Louisiana  there 
shall  be  no  trial  by  jury  unless  the  sum  involved  be  at  least 
one  hundred  dollars.  If  we  govern  Louisiana  must  we  not 
govern  it  on  constitutional  principles?  Have  we  a  right  to 
do  there  what  the  Constitution  expressly  forbids  us  to  do  else- 
where ?  Gentlemen  say  the  Constitution  applies  to  the  States  and 
not  to  the  Territories.  Be  it  so ;  and  we  have  still  the  treaty  left. 
By  that  treaty  we  are  forced  to  bestow  upon  the  people  of  the 
ceded  territory  all  the  rights  and  immunities  of  citizens  of 
the  United  States,  and  one  of  those  rights  is  trial  by  jury.  In 
the  end  the  opposers  of  the  bill  carried  the  day.  The  House 


26  GOVERNMENT  AND  BOUNDARY  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xrv. 

was  convinced  that  the  plan  of  government  was  not  republi- 
can, and  the  bill,  amended  and  limited  to  two  years'  duration, 
was  sent  back  to  the  Senate.  As  amended,  the  bill  provided 
for  trial  by  jury  in  all  cases  both  civil  and  criminal,  gave  the 
President  power  to  appoint  the  Council  for  one  year,  and  pro- 
vided that  thereafter  they  should  be  elected  annually  by  the 
people.  To  this,  however,  the  Senate  would  not  agree.  A 
conference  followed,  the  House  yielded,  and  the  bill,  with  all 
its  bad  features,  but  limited  to  one  year,  became  law. 

Bad  as  the  government  was  on  paper,  it  was  made  ten 
times  worse  by  the  conduct  of  the  men  chosen  to  carry  it  on. 
To  the  place  of  Governor,  Jefferson  appointed  William  Charles 
Cole  Claiborne.  James  Wilkinson  he  made  Military  Com- 
mander, and  on  the  bench  of  the  District  Court  placed  J.  B. 
Prevost,  step-son  of  Aaron  Burr.  Whatever  the  President 
may  have  thought  of  the  fitness  of  these  men,  their  appoint- 
ment was  to  the  people  of  Orleans  most  offensive.  Laussat, 
who  still  lingered  at  'New  Orleans,  wrote  home  that  the  new 
Government  had  made  a  most  unfortunate  beginning.  It 
would,  he  said,  have  been  hardly  possible  for  Jefferson  to  have 
sent  two  men  less  fitted  to  win  the  confidence  of  a  people  than 
Claiborne  and  Wilkinson.  The  Governor  he  described  as  a 
man  of  many  private  virtues,  but  weak,  awkward,  and  unfit  for 
his  place.  The  picture  he  drew  of  Wilkinson  would  have  been 
instantly  recognized  by  half  the  men  in  the  Mississippi  valley. 
The  General  was,  he  declared,  a  flighty,  rattle-brained  fellow, 
who  was  often  drunk,  who  had  been  guilty  of  a  hundred  imperti- 
nent follies,  and  who  had  long  been  known  in  a  bad  way  all  over 
the  province.  Neither  of  them  could  read  a  line  or  converse 
for  a  minute  in  French  or  Spanish.  Both  were  grossly  ignorant 
of  the  history,  the  institutions,  the  laws,  and  social  customs  of 
the  people  they  were  sent  to  govern.  Both  looked  down  on 
the  Creoles  and  the  Spaniards  as  a  debased  and  ignorant  popu- 
lation, to  be  taught  by  them  the  blessings  of  American  liberty. 
Measures  which  sprang  from  ignorance  seemed,  therefore,  to 
the  Creoles  to  be  deliberate  and  wanton  outrages  on  their  hab- 
its, their  prejudices,  their  natural  and  political  rights.  They 
saw  set  over  them  as  Governor  a  man  who  combined  in  him- 
self legislative,  executive,  and  judicial  powers.  They  saw  him 


1804.  SPANIAKDS  LINGER  IN  NEW  ORLEANS.  £7 

sweep  their  language  from  the  courts  and  public  offices,  and 
found  themselves,  in  all  dealings  with  public  officials,  forced  to 
employ  interpreters.  They  saw  American  judges,  brought  up 
to  administer  American  law,  attempt  to  administer  Spanish 
law,  of  which  they  knew  nothing,  without  even  the  help  of  an 
attorney.  In  the  worst  days  of  Spanish  rule  an  appeal  from 
the  acts  of  the  Royal  Governor  could  always  be  made  first  to 
Havana,  and  then  to  the  Audience  which  once  sat  at  San  Do- 
mingo, and  then  to  the  Council  of  the  Indies  at  Madrid.  But 
the  people  now  learned  that  over  the  acts  of  this  republican 
Governor  they  had  no  control,  and  that  from  his  decrees 
there  was  absolutely  no  appeal. 

The  opposition  produced  by  these  features  of  the  new  Gov- 
ernment was  yet  further  increased  by  the  emissaries  of  the 
old.  Though  the  province  had  been  formally  made  over  to 
the  United  States  in  December,  1803,  the  officers  and  troops 
of  Spain  showed  no  signs  of  moving.  While  the  soldiers  of 
the  United  States  occupied  the  redoubts  about  New  Orleans, 
slept  in  tents  near  the  marshes,  and  grew  sick  of  the  fever ; 
while  the  Government  of  the  United  States  hired  buildings  at 
great  rents  for  the  reception  of  provisions,  hospital  stores, 
powder  and  guns,  tents,  implements,  baggage,  and  arms,  the 
troops  of  Spain  continued  to  hold  the  barracks,  the  hospital, 
the  magazines,  the  storehouses,  and  regularly  each  day  mounted 
guard  in  New  Orleans.  April,  1804,  came  before  the  first 
detachment  of  three  hundred  Spanish  troops  set  off  for  Pen- 
sacola.  Then  the  barracks  were  given  up,  but  the  magazines 
and  the  hospital  were  held.  Not  till  July  could  Colonel  Con- 
stant Freeman  report  to  General  Wilkinson  that  the  powder 
magazine  opposite  the  city  had  at  last  been  surrendered  to  the 
United  States.  By  the  terms  of  the  treaty  the  Spanish  forces 
were  to  leave  the  ceded  territory  within  three  months ;  yet  all 
through  the  summer  and  autumn,  and  indeed  for  more  than 
a  year,  the  principal  commissioner,  the  Marquis  de  Casa 
Calvo,  the  associate  commissioner,  Don  Joseph  Martinez  de 
Croza,  the  commissary  of  war,  the  paymaster  of  the  army,  the 
treasurer  of  the  army,  the  late  intendant,  the  commander  of 
the  galiot,  officers  of  the  revenue,  officers  of  the  custom-house, 
surgeons,  chaplains,  clerks,  the  town  major,  and  regimental 


28  GOVERNMENT  AND  BOUNDARY  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xiv. 

officers  of  every  rank,  from  colonel  down  to  the  second  lieu- 
tenants of  militia,  continued  to  walk  the  streets  of  New  Or- 
leans and  to  talk  openly  of  the  day  when  the  territory  across 
the  Mississippi  would  again  be  under  the  flag  of  Spain.  Every 
American  who  came  to  New  Orleans  scouted  the  thought  of 
giving  up  Louisiana  as  ridiculous ;  but  to  the  people  who 
dwelt  in  the  city  the  lingering  of  so  many  officers  so  long 
after  they  should  have  gone  about  their  business  was  proof 
that  the  recovery  of  the  province  was  seriously  meditated. 

So  firm  a  hold  did  this  belief  have  on  the  minds  of  the 
people  that  many  of  them  were  afraid  to  take  office  under  the 
Territorial  Government,  or  even  to  show  it  a  decent  respect,  lest, 
when  the  retrocession  was  made,  they  should  suffer  for  their 
conduct.  Indeed,  when  October  the  first  came,  and  the  Gov- 
ernment was  about  to  organize,  five  of  the  Legislative  Council 
appointed  by  Jefferson  refused  to  serve.*  Two  months  went 
by  before  even  a  quorum  could  be  obtained,  f  and  by  that  time 
a  remonstrance  had  been  laid  before  Congress.:];  The  remon- 
strance had  been  ordered  at  a  popular  meeting,  bore  the  sig- 
natures, it  is  said,  of  two  thousand  heads  of  families,  and  had 
been  carried  to  Washington  by  three  commissioners.  The 
names  of  the  three  were  Pierre  Sauve,  Pierre  Derbigny,  and 
Jean  Noel  Destre"han. 

The  document  they  presented  was  the  work  of  Edward 
Livingston,  and  set  forth  the  complaints  of  the  people  in  no 
uncertain  language.  The  petitioners  denied  flatly  that  they 
were  sunk  in  ignorance,  effeminated  by  luxury,  debased  by 
oppression,  unfit  to  govern  themselves ;  called  for  the  evidence 
on  which  these  statements  had  been  based,  and  told  Congress 
not  to  believe  all  that  was  said  by  travellers.  They  asserted 
that  the  provisions  of  the  act  setting  up  the  temporary  gov- 
ernment violated  the  spirit  and  letter  of  the  treaty,  violated 
the  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  vio- 
lated their  rights  as  men.  Yiolated  the  treaty,  because  they 
had  not  been  admitted  into  the  Union  with  all  the  rights,  ad- 

*  Bor6,  Bcllechasse,  Cantrelle,  Evan  Jonee,  Daniel  Clark, 
f  December  4,  1804. 

\  Presented  to  the  House,  December  8,  1804 ;  to  the  Senate,  December  81, 
1804. 


1805.  LOUISIANA  REMONSTRANCE.  29 

vantages,  and  immunities  of  citizens  of  the  United  States ; 
violated  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  because  grievances 
which  held  no  mean  place  in  the  list  that  document  contained 
had  been  inflicted  on  them ;  *  violated  the  rights  of  men,  be- 
cause it  stripped  them  of  liberty,  self-government,  and  inde- 
pendence. These  charges  the  petitioners  supported  by  long 
arguments,  and  ended  with  an  earnest  demand  for  incorpora- 
tion into  the  Union,  and  for  the  repeal  of  so  much  of  the  law 
as  cut  Louisiana  into  two .  parts  and  forbade  the  importation 
of  slaves. 

A  few  days  after  f  this  remonstrance  and  petition  had  been 
laid  before  the  Senate  a  very  similar  document  reached  the 
House  from  a  convention  held  at  St.  Louis.  To  this  conven- 
tion had  come  delegates  from  the  districts  of  New  Madrid, 
and  Cape  Girardeau,  Sainte  Genevieve,  St.  Louis,  and  St. 
Charles  and  its  dependencies,  all  in  the  District  of  Louisiana. 
Having  been  duly  elected  by  the  people,  the  delegates  consid- 
ered themselves  as  speaking  for  the  people,  and  demanded  a 
radical  reform.  They  asked  for  the  repeal  of  the  law  provid- 
ing for  the  temporary  government  of  Louisiana ;  for  a  perma- 
nent division  of  the  territory;  and  sketched  a  plan  for  the 
government  of  that  part  in  which  they  lived.  The  Governor, 
Secretary,  and  Judges  should  be  appointed  by  the  President, 
should  speak  both  French  and  English,  should  live  in  the  dis- 
trict, and  own  property  therein  to  the  amount  prescribed  in  the 
ordinance  of  1787.$  They  would  have  an  assembly  made  up 
of  two  men  from  each  county,  a  delegate  on  the  floor  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  and  the  right  to  buy,  sell,  and  im- 
port slaves.  They  would  have  money  appropriated  and  land 
set  apart  for  the  use  of  schools.  They  would  have  the  records 
of  every  court  kept  in  French  and  English,  and  every  contract 
made  or  judgment  rendered  under  Spanish  law  left  undis- 
turbed. 

*  Taxation  without  representation  ;  obligation  to  obey  laws  without  a  voice  in 
making  them ;  a  dependent  judiciary,  and  an  undue  influence  of  the  Executive  on 
the  Legislature. 

f  January  4,  1805. 

$  Governor,  one  thousand  acres ;  secretary,  five  hundred  acres ;  each  judge, 
five  hundred  acrea. 


30  GOVERNMENT  AND  BOUNDARY  OF  LOUISIANA.  OHAP.  xiv. 

The  two  memorials  were  sent  to  the  committee  on  so 
much  of  the  President's  message  as  related  to  Louisiana. 
John  Randolph  was  chairman,  and  the  report  made  to  the 
House  toward  the  end  of  January  was  from  his  hand.  He 
declared  the  grievances  complained  of  to  be  such  as  were  in- 
separable from  change  of  government.  He  declared  that  only 
under  the  torture  could  the  Treaty  of  Paris  be  made  to  speak 
the  language  ascribed  to  it  by  the  memorialists.  He  denied 
that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  had  been  wanting 
in  good  faith,  and  ended  by  recommending  that  the  right  to 
self-government  be  given  to  the  people  of  Louisiana.  Having 
heard  the  report,  the  House  bade  a  committee  to  bring  in  a 
bill,  or  bills,  in  accordance  with  the  suggestion.  The  commit- 
tee did  nothing,  for  the  very  day  the  House  gave  the  order 
a  bill  providing  a  new  government  for  Orleans  was  read  in 
the  Senate.*  Ten  days  later  f  another  bill,  extending  the  right 
of  self-government  to  the  District  of  Louisiana,  was  also  read 
in  the  Senate,  and  in  the  last  hours  of  the  session  both  were 
passed  by  the  House.  By  the  one,  the  country  which  had  been 
the  District  of  Louisiana  became  the  Territory  of  Louisiana, 
with  a  Governor,  a  Secretary,  and  three  Judges  of  its  own. 
By  the  other,  the  people  of  the  Territory  of  Orleans  ob- 
tained a  government  similar  to  that  of  Mississippi,^:  and  were 
promised  that,  when  the  free  inhabitants  of  the  soil  numbered 
sixty  thousand,  Orleans  should  be  made  a  State  and  admitted 
into  the  Union.* 

In  the  opinion  of  the  three  delegates,  Orleans  should  have 
been  made  a  State  at  once.  The  act,  therefore,  gave  them  great 
offence.  From  the  moment  of  their  arrival  to  the  moment 
when  the  fate  of  the  bill  was  no  longer  doubtful  the  three  had 
behaved  with  great  prudence.  They  were  much  in  the  com- 
pany of  the  friends  of  Jefferson,  had  nothing  to  do  with  foreign 
ministers,  and  contented  themselves  with  sending  long  remon- 
strances to  the  committee  in  charge  of  the  bill.  But  the  in- 

*  January  28,  1805.  f  February  7,  1806. 

J  A  General  Assembly  of  twenty-five  delegates  chosen  by  the  people. 

*  Each  act  went  into  effect  on  July  4,  1805.     The  Territory  of  Louisiana  in- 
cluded the  whole  country  north  of  latitude  thirty-three  degrees  and  west  of  the 
Mississippi  river.     The  northern  and  western  boundaries  were  undetermined. 


1805.  THE  MOBILE   ACT.  31 

stant  the  fate  of  the  bill  was  decided,  the  instant  they  became 
certain  it  would  pass,  their  conduct  changed.  They  now  be- 
came the  close  friends  of  the  British  Minister,  the  French 
Minister,  and  of  Aaron  Burr.^.  They  no  longer  hesitated  to 
declare  publicly  that  the  law  would  not  be  tolerated ;  that  they 
would  seek  redress  elsewhere ;  and  that,  from  what  they  had 
seen  at  Washington,  they  did  not  believe  the  Union  could  long 
hold  together.*  Three  days  after  the  passage  of  the  bill  the 
delegates  set  off  for  home.  The  threat  of  the  delegates  that 
they  would  seek  abroad  for  the  redress  they  could  not  get 
at  home  was  not  so  idle  as  it  now  seems.  They  made  it  well 
knowing  that  the  United  States  was  deeply  involved  in  a  most 
serious  quarrel  with  France  and  Spain  over  the  ownership  of 
West  Florida.  During  the  first  session  of  the  eighth  Congress 
an  act  had  been  passed  laying  tonnage  and  import  duties  in 
Louisiana,  spreading  over  it  the  laws  relating  to  the  bank, 
the  treasury,  the  mint,  the  circulation  of  foreign  coin,  the 
collection  of  debts,  establishing  ports  of  entry  and  ports  of 
delivery,  and  marking  out  the  bounds  of  custom  districts.  A 
fortnight  later  Yrujo,  with  a  copy  of  the  Gazette  containing 
it  in  his  hand,  entered  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  State. 
Storming  and  boiling  with  rage,  he  pointed  to  the  eleventh 
section  of  the  act  and  pronounced  it  an  infamous  libel  and  a 
violation  of  the  sovereignty  of  Spain.  And  well  he  might, 
for  the  section  gave  the  President  most  extreme  power. 
Whenever  he  saw  fit,  Jefferson  was  to  erect  all  the  shores, 
all  the  waters,  inlets,  creeks,  and  bays  emptying  into  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico,  from  the  Pascagoula  eastward,  into  a  collection 
district,  and  provide  it  with  a  port  of  entry 'and  deli  very,  f 
No  boundary  was  fixed  on  the  east.  But  the  law  applied  no 
farther  east  than  the  United  States  claimed  jurisdiction,  and 
the  United  States  claimed  no  jurisdiction  beyond  the  Perdido 
river.  Of  this  fact  Yrujo  was  politely  informed.  The  an- 
swer of  Yrujo  was  a  full  refutation  of  the  claims  of  the 

*  Merry  to  Harrowby,  No.  14,  March  29,  1805.     Adams's  Hist,  of  U.  S.,  p.  401. 

f  "  To  erect  the  shores,  waters,  and  inlets  of  the  Bay  and  River  of  Mobile,  and 
of  the  other  rivers,  creeks,  inlets,  and  bays  emptying  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
east  of  the  said  River  Mobile  and  west  thereof  to  the  Pascagoula,  inclusive,  into 
a  separate  district." — Act  of  February  24,  1804. 


32  GOVERNMENT  AND  BOUNDARY  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xiv. 

United  States  to  "West  Florida,  a  charge  that  sovereignty  of 
Spain  was  usurped  by  the  act,  and  a  demand  that  the  law  be 
annulled.*  To  annul  the  law  was  not  possible.  But  the  note 
had  its  effect,  and,  a  few  weeks  later,  when  Jefferson  issued 
his  proclamation  defining  the  new  district,  he  wilfully  departed 
from  the  language  of  the  act.  He  then  declared  all  the 
shores,  waters,  inlets,  creeks,  and  rivers  "  lying  within  the 
boundaries  of  the  United  States "  to  be  a  collection  district, 
with  Fort  Stoddart  for  the  port  of  entry,  f  As  not  one  foot 
of  West  Florida  lay  within  "the  boundaries  of  the  United 
States,"  the  President,  by  the  addition  of  these  words,  de- 
stroyed the  force  of  the  act. 

To  understand  the  boundary  dispute  which  thus  arose  it  is 
necessary  to  recall  the  history  of  French  dominion  in  what  is 
now  the  United  States;  to  recall  how  Marquette  and  Joliet 
discovered  the  Mississippi ;  how  La  Salle  explored  it  to  its 
mouth;  how,  standing  on  the  shore  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
he  named  the  country  Louisiana,  and  took  possession  of  it  for 
France ;  and  how,  in  1685,  when  seeking  the  Mississippi  by 
sea,  he  reached  the  bay  of  Matagorda  and  founded  Fort  St. 
Louis,  of  Texas.  By  the  custom  of  nations,  the  discovery  and 
exploration  of  the  Mississippi  gave  to  France  all  the  country 
drained  by  that  river  and  its  branches.  The  discovery  of  the 
Texas  coast  gave  to  her  the  water-shed  of  that  coast,  while  the 
establishment  of  Fort  St.  Louis  carried  her  claim  along  the 
Gulf  southward  to  a  point  midway  between  Fort  St.  Louis 
and  the  nearest  Spanish  post.  The  nearest  Spanish  post  was 
in  the  Province  of  Paduco.  On  the  rude  maps  of  the  closing 
days  of  the  seventeenth  century  Louisiana,  therefore,  extends 
from  the  Rio  Grande  to  the  Mobile,  from  the  Gulf  to  the 
country  beyond  the  source  of  the  Mississippi  river,  and  from 
the  Smoky  Mountains  to  the  unknown  regions  of  the  West. 
To  the  claim  of  discovery  and  the  claim  of  exploration  was 
soon  added  a  third,  that  of  settlement ;  and,  before  the  first 
quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century  ended,  Biloxi  had  been 
founded,  and  Mobile ;  the  forts  Rosalie,  Toulouse  and  Tom- 
bigbee,  !N"atchitoches  and  Assumption,  Chartres  and  Cahokia 

*  Yrujo  to  Madison,  March  7,  1804.  f  Proclamation,  Maj  30,  1804. 


1762.  SPANISH  CLAIMS  TO  WEST  FLORIDA.  33 

erected,  and  the  streets  and  ramparts  of  New  Orleans  marked 
out  by  De  la  Tour. 

Thus  firmly  in  possession  of  the  Mississippi  on  the  south 
and  holding  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Lakes  on  the  north,  the 
French  began  to  overrun  the  country ;  built  Fort  Lake  Pepin, 
Fort  Yincent,  Niagara,  Detroit,  Toronto,  Ticonderoga,  and 
Crown  Point ;  strengthened  their  settlements  on  the  Mississippi 
and  the  Illinois,  and,  when  the  second  quarter  of  the  century 
ended,  had  taken  formal  possession  of  the  valley  of  the  Ohio ; 
built  Presqu'  Isle  and  Le  Bosuf,  and  Yenango,  and  soon  after, 
at  the  gateway  of  the  Ohio  river,  came  face  to  face  with  the 
English. 

The  conflict  which  followed  has  come  down  in  history  as 
the  French  and  Indian  War.  It  ought  to  have  been  called 
the  war  for  possession.  When  it  was  over,  French  power  in 
America  was  gone.  By  the  treaty  of  November  third,  1762, 
France  gave  to  England,  Nova  Scotia,  Acadia,  Cape  Breton, 
Canada,  all  the  islands  and  all  the  coasts  of  the  Gulf  and  river 
St.  Lawrence,  and  divided  her  possessions  in  what  is  now  our 
country  into  two  parts.  The  line  of  partition  was  the  Missis- 
sippi river  from  its  source  to  the  river  Iberville ;  thence  it 
ran  through  the  Iberville  to  Lake  Maurepas,  and  along  the 
north  shore  of  Lakes  Maurepas  and  Pontchartrain  to  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico.  All  to  the  east  she  gave  to  England ;  all  to  the 
west  she  gave  to  Spain.  No  sooner  did  England  come  into 
possession  of  her  share  than  she  proceeded  to  cut  it  up.  From 
the  junction  of  the  Yazoo  and  Mississippi  rivers  she  drew  a 
line  due  east  along  a  parallel  to  the  Appalachicola  and  down 
that  river  to  the  Gulf,  and  named  the  country  thus  enclosed 
West  Florida.  To  what  is  now  the  State  of  Florida  east  of 
the  Appalachicola  she  gave  the  present  bounds  and  the  name 
of  Florida  East.  During  twenty  years  these  bounds  and 
names  remained  undisturbed;  then,  in  1T83,  Great  Britain 
made  the  north  boundary  of  West  Florida  the  parallel  of 
thirty-one  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Appalachicola,  and  gave 
the  two  Floridas  to  Spain. 

Spain  thus  received  the  two  Floridas  from  England  and 
not  from  France.  When  therefore  in  1800,  by  the  secret 
treaty  of  San  Ildefonso,  Spain  bound  herself  to  return  Lou- 

TOL.  III. 4 


34:  GOVERNMENT  AND  BOUNDARY  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xiv. 

isiana  to  France,  she  bound  herself  to  give  back  what  France 
had  given  her  in  1762,  and  not  what  England  had  given  her  in 
1783.  It  was,  in  the  language  of  the  treaty,  to  be  the  "  Prov- 
ince of  Louisiana  with  the  same  extent  it  now  has  in  the  hands 
of  Spain,  and  that  it  had  when  France  possessed  it,  and  such 
as  it  should  be  after  the  treaties  subsequently  entered  into  be- 
tween Spain  and  other  States."  To  the  minds  of  Jefferson 
and  Madison  the  meaning  of  these  words  was  that  the  United 
States  had  purchased  West  Florida.  Their  reasoning  was 
this :  Spain  in  1800  owned  "West  Florida.  "West  Florida  was 
once  a  part  of  Louisiana.  Spain  in  1800  receded  Louisiana 
to  France.  She  therefore  receded  West  Florida.  Had  such 
reasoning  been  applied  to  a  real  estate  transaction  in  private 
life  the  folly  would  have  been  at  once  apparent.  The  treaty 
of  1800  was  a  treaty  of  recession.  Spain  then  gave  back  to 
France  what  France  had  given  to  her  in  1762,  and  nothing 
more  nor  less.  In  1762  Spain  did  not  own  "West  Florida.  She 
could  not,  therefore,  in  1800,  have  receded  it  to  France. 

But  neither  Jefferson  nor  Madison  would  stop  with  the 
treaty  of  1762.  Frenchmen  had  built  Biloxi  and  Mobile. 
The  authority  of  Frenchmen  had  once  been  obeyed  on  the 
banks  of  the  Perdido,  and  that  much  of  West  Florida  at  least 
they  were  determined  to  have.  To  get  it,  Spain  must  be  paci- 
fied, and,  as  a  first  step  toward  pacification,  the  convention  of 
1802  was  ratified. 

After  the  close  of  the  first  Napoleonic  war  a  demand  had 
been  made  on  Spain  for  indemnity.  French  privateers  had 
been  fitted  out  in  Spanish  ports  to  prey  upon  the  shipping  of 
the  United  States.  Scores  of  American  vessels  had  been  con- 
demned by  French  consuls  resident  on  Spanish  soil.  Spanish 
subjects,  under  the  pretended  blockade  of  Gibraltar,  had  seized 
every  American  vessel  that  came  there  for  convoy  through 
the  Mediterranean  sea.  For  the  depredations  of  the  Span- 
iards Spain  was  ready  to  make  redress ;  but  for  the  actions  of 
the  Frenchmen  she  would  not  pay  one  single  piaster.  Finding 
her  determined,  the  American  Minister  gave  way  and  a  con- 
vention was  drawn  up  in  August,  1802.  This  provided  in- 
demnity for  the  spoliation  of  Americans  by  subjects  of  Spain, 
but  left  the  damage  done  by  Frenchmen  to  be  settled  in  the 


1803.  SPANISH  SPOLIATION  CLAIMS.  35 

future.  Angry  at  the  failure  to  provide  for  both  sets  of 
claims,  the  Senate  refused  to  act ;  the  convention  went  over 
to  the  following  session,  and  the  American  Minister  at  the 
Court  of  Madrid  was  instructed  to  again  try  to  have  provision 
for  French  spoliations  inserted.*  This  he  did,  and  was  as- 
sured that  the  demand  could  not  be  listened  to ;  that  it  was 
wholly  incompatible  with  the  law  of  nations,  and  had  been  pro- 
nounced so  by  the  most  esteemed  lawyers  in  the  United  States, 
some  of  whom  then  held  office  under  the  Government,  f  Not 
long  after  the  convention  of  1802  reached  the  United  States, 
Yrujo,  well  knowing  that  the  omission  of  the  French  claims 
would  lead  to  trouble,  submitted  the  question  of  their  justness 
to  five  lawyers  of  high  standing.  Two  of  them  were  Jared 
Ingersoll  and  "William  Rawle,  leaders  of  the  Philadelphia  bar. 
A  third  was  Joseph  B.  McKean,  son  of  the  Governor  of  Penn- 
sylvania and  brother-in-law  of  Yrujo.  The  fourth  was  Peter 
Stephen  Du  Ponceau;  the  fifth  was  Edward  Livingston. 
Concealing  the  names  of  the  powers,  Yrujo  stated  the  case  in 
these  words  :  "  The  Power  A  (Spain)  li  ves  in  perfect  harmony 
and  friendship  with  Power  B  (the  United  States).  The  Power 
C  (France),  either  with  reason  or  without  reason,  commits  hos- 
tilities against  the  subjects  of  the  Power  B,  takes  some  of 
their  vessels,  carries  them  into  the  ports  of  A,  friend  to  both, 
where  they  are  condemned  and  sold,  by  the  official  agents  of 
Power  C  without  Power  A  being  able  to  prevent  it.  At  last 
a  treaty  is  entered  into  by  which  the  Powers  B  and  C  adjust 
their  differences,  and  in  this  treaty  the  Power  B  renounces 
and  abandons  to  Power  C  the  right  to  any  claim  for  the  in- 
juries and  losses  occasioned  to  its  subjects  by  the  hostilities  from 
Power  C."  Having  thus  stated  the  case,  Yrujo  asked  :  "  Has 
the  Power  B  any  right  to  call  upon  the  Power  A  for  indemni- 
ties for  the  losses  occasioned  in  its  ports  and  coasts  to  its  sub- 
jects by  those  of  the  Power  C  after  the  Power  B  has  abandoned 
or  relinquished  by  its  treaty  with  C  its  right  for  the  damages 
which  could  be  claimed  for  the  injuries  sustained  from  the  hos- 
tile conduct  of  the  Power  C  ? "  Each  of  the  five  said  "  No." 

*  Madison  to  Charles  Pinckney,  March  8,  1803. 

f  Don  Pedro  Cevallos  to  Charles  Pinckney,  August  23,  1803. 


36  GOVERNMENT  AND  BOUNDARY  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP,  xiy 

When  tliis  bit  of  information  and  the  letters  which  accom- 
panied it  were  laid  before  the  Senate  in  December,  1803,  that 
body  was  less  disposed  than  ever  to  approve  the  convention. 
But  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  had  brought  up  the  question  of 
the  ownership  of  West  Florida.  New  negotiations  with  Spain 
must  be  opened,  and  to  remove  every  cause  of  irritation  from 
the  negotiation  the  convention  of  1802  was  taken  up,  and, 
with  many  marks  of  disgust  and  discontent,  approved.* 

A  month  later  the  document,  duly  signed,  was  sent  off  to 
Spain,  where  the  United  States  was  then  represented  by 
Charles  Pinckney,  of  South  Carolina.  The  Spanish  Minister 
of  Foreign  Affairs  was  Don  Pedro  Cevallos.  To  him  Pinck- 
ney at  once  carried  the  ratified  convention,  feeling  sure  that 
it  would  receive  the  prompt  approval  of  Spain.  Cevallos, 
however,  hesitated,  delayed,  and  demurred,  and,  while  he  de- 
layed, a  copy  of  the  Mobile  Act,  sent  over  by  Yrujo,  came  to 
hand.  Delighted  to  find  a  new  cause  for  delay,  Cevallos  at 
once  took  up  the  act,  declared  it  a  violation  of  the  sovereignty 
of  Spain,  demanded  an  explanation!  from  Pinckney,  and 
wasted  a  whole  month  in  bickering.  Then  he  consented  to 
state  precisely  the  conditions  on  which  Spain  would  ratify  the 
convention,  and  declared  they  were  three  in  number.  Time 
must  be  given  for  the  subjects  of  Spain  having  claims  against 
the  United  States  to  make  ready  and  present  their  papers ; 
the  sixth  article,  which  related  to  damages  done  by  French 
cruisers  to  American  ships,  must  be  suppressed ;  the  act  set- 
ting up  a  custom  district  in  West  Florida  must  be  repealed. :{: 

As  Pinckney  read  these  demands  he  seems  to  have  gone 
mad  with  rage.  All  diplomacy,  all  policy,  all  good  sense  was 
laid  aside,  and,  in  a  threatening  letter  to  Cevallos,  he  pressed 
for  an  answer  to  "  just  one  question."  Was  he  to  understand 
that  if  the  sixth  article  was  not  suppressed,  the  convention 
would  not  be  ratified  by  Spain  ?  The  answer  he  hoped  would 
come  quickly,  as  he  intended  in  a  few  days  to  send  couriers  to 
all  the  American  consuls  in  Spain,  and  to  the  commander  of 

*  January  9,  1804.    Journal  of  the  Executive  Proceedings  of  the  Senate,  vol.  i, 
pp.  461,  462. 

f  Cevallos  to  Pinckney,  May  31,  1804. 
f  Cevallos  to  Pinckney,  July  2,  1804. 


1804.  MONROE   SENT  TO   SPAIN.  37 

the  American  squadron  in  the  Mediterranean.  He  intended 
to  inform  them  of  the  critical  situation  of  affairs,  of  the  prob- 
ability of  war  between  the  United  States  and  Spain,  and  to  bid 
them  warn  all  merchant  ships  and  be  ready  to  leave  Spain  at 
a  moment's  notice.*  Cevallos  was  greatly  alarmed ;  but  he 
put  on  a  bold  front,  declared  he  did  not  believe  the  American 
Minister  had  instructions  to  go  to  such  an  extreme,  and  trans- 
ferred the  negotiation  to  Washington.f  Pinckney,  however, 
was  not  to  be  overawed ;  sent  off  his  couriers,  and  gave  out 
that  the  moment  his  affairs  were  in  order  he  should  ask  for 
passports  and  quit  Madrid.  ^ 

Late  in  October  the  news  of  the  quarrel  reached  the 
United  States,  and  was  soon  followed  by  a  request  for  Pinck- 
ney's  recall.  The  request  was  granted,  and  Monroe  bidden  to 
go  with  all  the  speed  he  could  to  Madrid.*  But,  while  the 
letter  was  being  written,  he  was  on  his  way  to  Spain.  On 
the  seventeenth  of  February,  1803,  he  had,  when  about  to  set 
out  for  Paris  to  negotiate  for  the  purchase  of  the  island  of 
Orleans  and  the  Floridas,  been  joined  with  Charles  Pinckney 
in  a  commission  to  treat  with  his  Catholic  Majesty  Don 
Carlos  IY,  of  Spain.  The  two  were  to  treat  for  the  settlement 
of  the  claims  not  included  in  the  convention  of  August,  1802, 
and,  if  the  island  of  Orleans  and  the  two  Floridas  were  not 
obtained,  to  secure  an  enlargement  of  the  right  of  deposit  at 
New  Orleans,  the  establishment  of  suitable  places  of  deposit 
at  the  mouths  of  the  rivers  flowing  through  the  Floridas,  and 
the  free  navigation  of  these  rivers  by  citizens  of  the  United 
States.  |  As  sqon,  therefore,  as  the  treaty  for  the  purchase  of 
Louisiana  had  been  concluded  at  Paris,  Monroe  made  ready 
to  join  Pinckney  at  Madrid.  But  the  rage  with  which  Spain 
heard  of  the  sale  of  Louisiana  led  the  three  French  consuls  to 
urge  him  not  to  go.A  He  took  their  advice,  and  while  he  lin- 

*  Pinckney  to  Cevallos,  July  5,  1804.       f  Cevallos  to  Pinckney,  July  8,  1804. 
$  Pinckney  to  Cevallos,  July  14,  1804. 

*  Madison  to  Monroe,  October  26,  1804. 

H  Madison  to  Pinckney  and  Monroe,  February  17, 1803.  State  Papers,  vol.  ii, 
pp.  532,  633. 

A  Monroe  to  Madison,  July  20,  1S03.  Manuscripts  State  Department.  Mon- 
roe to  Talleyrand,  November  8,  1804.  Foreign  Relations,  vol.  ii,  p.  634. 


•t  .o 

->-  -J 


38  GOVERNMENT  AND  BOUNDARY  OF  LOUISIANA.  OHAP.  XIT. 

gered  at  Paris  was  commissioned  Minister  Plenipotentiary  to 
England  *  in  place  of  Ruf  us  King,  who  had  resigned  and  gone 
home.  In  July  he  reached  London,  was  presented  to  the  King 
a  month  later,  and  was  hard  at  work  on  the  matter  of  impress- 
ment when  he  received  instructions  to  proceed  to  Madrid,  f 

There,  in  connection  with  Pinckney,  he  was  to  attempt 
four  things — persuade  Spain  to  acknowledge  the  Perdido  as 
the  eastern  boundary  of  Louisiana ;  buy  for  two  millions  of 
dollars  the  rest  of  her  possessions  east  of  the  Perdido  ;  secure 
payment  for  the  damages  suffered  by  the  condemnation  of 
American  shipping  by  French  consuls  on  Spanish  soil ;  insist 
on  the  right  of  the  United  States  to  Texas.  On  this  point 
Spain  might  be  stubborn.  In  that  event  he  might  waive  the 
whole  question  of  a  western  boundary  and  consent  to  separate 
the  dominions  of  Spain  from  the  dominions  of  the  United 
States  by  a  broad  belt  of  neutral  country,  into  which  the  peo- 
ple of  neither  power  should  be  suffered  to  .go.  The  eastern 
limit  of  this  belt  was  to  be  defined  as  the  Sabine,  from  its 
mouth  to  its  source  ;  a  right  line  to  the  junction  of  the  Osage 
with  the  Missouri ;  and  a  line  parallel  to  the  Mississippi  to  the 
north  boundary.  On  the  west  the  limit  was  to  be  the  Rio 
Colorado  to  its  source ;  a  line  to  the  most  southwesterly 
branch  of  the  Red  river ;  the  highlands  parting  the  feeders  of 
the  Missouri  and  the  Mississippi  from  the  feeders  of  the  Rio 
Bravo,  as  far  as  the  source  of  the  Rio  Bravo,  and  a  meridian 
to  the  north  boundary.  On  no  account  was  our  claim  to  the 
Rio  Bravo  to  be  given  up.  On  no  account  was  the  neutral 
belt  to  exist  for  more  than  twenty  years.  If  possible,  the  term 
was  to  be  less  and  the  belt  narrower.  Indeed,  so  strongly  did 
Jefferson  feel  on  this  point  that,  three  months  later,  the  in- 
structions were  greatly  modified.  The  Commissioners  were 
then  instructed  to  secure  the  Rio  Bravo  as  the  limit  of  Spanish 
settlement,  and  the  Rio  Colorado  as  the  limit  of  American 
settlement ;  but  not  to  give  up  the  territory  between  these 
rivers  forever.;}; 

*  Appointed  during  the  recess  of  the  Senate.     Confirmed  November  15,  1803. 
Journal  of  the  Executive  Proceedings  of  the  Senate. 

f  Madison  to  Monroe,  April  15,  1804.     Foreign  Relations,  vol.  ii,  pp.  627-630. 
J  Madison  to  Monroe  and  Pinckney,  July  8,  1804. 


1805.  THE  PEKDIDO  AND   THE  RIO   GRANDE.  39 

The  receipt  of  this  letter  and  the  news  of  Pinckney's  quar- 
rel with  Cevallos  determined  Monroe  to  set  out  at  once  for 
Madrid.  His  route  lay  through  Paris,  and  at  Paris  he  stopped 
to  seek  French  help.  Of  the  result  of  such  an  application 
he  was  not  long  in  doubt ;  indeed,  he  had  not  been  three  days 
at  Paris  when  he  was  told  plainly  that  the  whole  question  was 
one  of  money.  "  Spain,"  said  one  man,  who  spoke  with  au- 
thority, "  Spain  must  cede  territory.  The  United  States  must 
pay  money."  Marbois  declared  that  if  Spain  were  suitably 
compensated  the  negotiation  might  succeed.  Despite  these 
unmistakable  assurances;  Monroe  determined  to  try,  and  spent 
some  weeks  in  persuading  Livingston  to  carry  his  note  to 
Talleyrand.  In  it  he  again  stated  the  claims  of  the  United 
States  to  the  Perdido  and  the  Eio  Grande,  reminded  Talley- 
rand that,  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Emperor,  the  negotiation 
for  the  cession  of  the  Floridas  and  the  payment  of  damages 
had  been  put  off,  told  him  that  it  was  now  to  be  begun,  and 
asked  for  the  support  of  Napoleon.  As  time  was  precious, 
Monroe  did  not  wait  for  the  reply,  but  passed  on  to  Madrid. 
The  answer,  therefore,  was  addressed  to  John  Armstrong,  who 
had  just  replaced  Edward  Livingston  as  Minister  to  France. 
The  letter  was  long,  but  the  substance  was  this :  France  had 
ceded  to  the  United  States  in  1803  what  she  had  received  from 
Spain  in  1800,  and  what  she  received  in  1800  was  a  retroces 
sion  of  what  she  ceded  to  Spain  in  1762,  and  what  she  ceded 
to  Spain  in  1762  was  the  territory  west  of  the  Mississippi,  the 
Iberville,  and  Lakes  Maurepas  and  Pontchartrain.  Florida 
she  gave  to  England.  How,  then,  could  it  be  receded  to  her 
by  Spain  ?  * 

A  month  later  Monroe  and  Pinckney  renewed  relations 
with  Spain  and  submitted  the  project  of  a  convention  to  Ceval- 
los. f  By  one  article  Spain  was  to  acknowledge  the  Perdido  as 
the  eastern  boundary  of  Louisiana.  By  another,  a  temporary 
neutral  strip  was  to  be  established,  into  which  no  settlers  from 
either  country  were  to  go.  By  a  third,  the  final  boundary  be- 

*  Talleyrand  to  John  Armstrong,  December  21,  1804.  Foreign  Relations, 
vol  ii,  pp.  635,  636. 

f  Pinckney  and  Monroe  to  Cevallos,  January  28,  1805.  Foreign  Relations, 
vol.  ii,  pp.  636-639. 


40  GOVERNMENT  AND  BOUNDARY  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xiv. 

tween  the  countries  was  to  be  established  before  a  certain  date. 
By  a  fourth,  commissioners  were  to  be  chosen  to  determine  all 
damages  due  to  either  power.  The  fifth  authorized  the  Com- 
missioners to  fix  the  losses  arising  from  the  suspension  of  the 
right  of  deposit  at  New  Orleans  in  1802.  The  sixth  specified 
the  manner  in  which  the  awards  should  be  paid. 

The  project  of  a  convention,  Cevallos  said  in  his  reply, 
ought  to  result  from  the  discussion  of  the  points  in  dispute. 
He  proceeded,  therefore,  to  lay  aside  the  project  and  take  up 
the  discussion  under  three  heads — the  damages,  the  indemnity 
for  injuries  caused  by  suspending  the  right  of  deposit,  and 
the  boundary  of  Louisiana.  Unable  to  agree  on  the  question 
of  indemnity,  they  passed  to  the  discussion  of  the  eastern 
boundary,  and  a  whole  month  was  spent  in  idle  dispute. 
Again  no  agreement  was  reached,  and  the  eastern  boundary 
was  dropped  and  the  western  taken  up.  Cevallos  offered  to 
fix  a  point  on  the  shore  of  the  Gulf  between  the  rivers  Cal- 
casieu  and  Marnentou  and  draw  a  line  northward  between  the 
Spanish  post  of  Neustra  Sefiora  de  los  Adaes  and  the  French 
post  of  Natchitoches  on  the  Red  river ;  where  the  line  should 
then  run  he  proposed  to  leave  to  a  commission.*  The  envoys 
answered  that  the  United  States  claimed  to  the  Rio  Bravo, 
but  would,  on  two  conditions,  accept  the  Colorado.  If  Spain 
would  pay  the  claims  provided  for  in  the  convention  of  1802 
and  cede  the  two  Floridas,  the  United  States  would  waive  all 
other  claims  for  damages  and  make  the  boundary  a  neutral 
belt  thirty  miles  wide  on  one  or  both  sides  of  a  line  to  be  the 
Colorado  to  its  source,  a  line  to  the  most  southwesterly  source 
of  the  Red  river,  thence  along  the  highlands  parting  the  waters 
of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Missouri  from  the  waters  of  the  Rio 
Bravo,  and  a  meridian  to  the  north  boundary  of  Louisiana,  f 
Cevallos  declared  the  terms  unreasonable.  The  correspondence 
ended,  Monroe  asked  for  his  passport,  and  a  week  later  was 
on  his  way  back  to  London.  There  was,  he  declared,  no  other 
alternative.  He  must  depart  or  submit  to  terms  which  it  was 
well  known  France  would  accept,  nay,  had  perhaps  dictated. 

*  Cevallos  to  Pinckney  and  Monroe,  April  13,  1808. 

f  Pinckney  and  Monroe  to  Cevallos,  May  12,  1805.     Foreign  Relations,  vol. 
ii,  p.  665. 


1805.  THE  PRICE  OF  WEST  FLORIDA.  41 

These  terms  were :  make  a  loan  of  seventy  millions  of  livres, 
give  it  to  Spain,  and,  when  Spain  had  transferred  it  to  France, 
receive  from  Spain  the  disputed  territory  and  the  money  by 
instalment  in  seven  years.*  Pinckney  lingered  some  months 
longer,  for  every  mule  was  seized  for  the  use  of  the  King,  and 
he  could  not  get  to  the  Sitio  to  take  leave.  James  Bowdoin, 
of  Massachusetts,  was  in  the  mean  time  appointed  to  take 
Pinckney's  place.f 

*  Monroe's  Diary  at  Aranjuez,  April  22, 1805.     Manuscripts  State  Department, 
f  Nominated  November  19,  1804.     November  20, 1804,  the  Senate  consented. 
Executive  Journal,  vol.  i,  pp.  473,  474. 


42     RESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OP  LOUISIANA.    CHAP.  xv. 


CHAPTER  XY. 

RESULTS   OF   THE   PURCHASE   OF   LOUISIANA. 

WHILE  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  was  thus  involving  us  in 
a  boundary  dispute  abroad,  it  was  producing  consequences  far 
more  serious  and  alarming  at  home.  It  set  up  the  principle 
that  Congress  may  violate  the  Constitution  if  the  mass  of  the 
voters  approve.  It  destroyed  what  was  then  called  the  balance 
of  power  between  the  North  and  the  South.  It  stirred  up 
the  Federal  press  of  "New  England  to  clamor  for  a  separation 
of  the  States,  and  encouraged  the  Federal  leaders  in  Congress 
deliberately  to  plan  disunion.  The  vast  extent  of  the  South- 
ern States,  the  richness  of  their  soil,  the  mildness  of  their  cli- 
mate, the  ruling  place  they  held  in  politics,  led  to  the  belief 
that  they  would  in  no  long  time  outstrip  the  North.  The 
purchase  of  Louisiana  was,  therefore,  to  thousands  of  well- 
meaning  men  a  matter  of  the  gravest  concern.  They  were 
sure  that  the  power,  the  influence,  the  prosperity  of  New 
England  were  gone  forever,  "When  the  Constitution  was 
framed,  these  men  would  argue,  a  balance  of  power  among 
the  original  parties  was  considered  to  exist.  For  a  while  this 
balance  was  carefully  maintained,  and  the  admission  of  Ken- 
tucky, a  Western  State,  was  attended  by  the  admission  of  Ver- 
mont, an  Eastern  State.  But  the  entrance  of  Tennessee  into 
the  Union  was  by  no  means  offset  by  the  entrance  of  Ohio. 
The  balance  of  power  was  then  destroyed,  and  what  was  then 
begun  has,  by  the  purchase  of  Louisiana,  been  assured  a  steady 
continuance.  Out  of  that  territory  will  be  made  new  States. 
These  new  States  the  South  will  use  to  govern  the  East  till 
the  Western  States,  increasing  in  number  and  growing  in  popu- 
lation, themselves  combine  and  rule  both  the  South  and  the 


1804.  DISCONTENT  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  43 

East.  Under  either  set  of  rulers  New  England  is  doomed. 
Shall  she  then  submit  to  the  guidance  and  tyranny  of  the 
South  ?  The  recent  augmentation  of  Southern  interests  must 
convince  every  State  above  the  Chesapeake  and  Potomac  that 
safety  is  to  be  found  nowhere  but  in  separation. 

The  prosperity  of  New  England,  in  the  opinion  of  these 
men,  demanded  separation.  Virginia  influence,  Virginia 
politics,  Virginia  men  ruled  everywhere.  The  influence  of 
New  England  in  the  affairs  of  the  nation  seemed  gone  for- 
ever. She  was,  they  thought,  fast  becoming  no  better  than  a 
Virginia  colony.  From  such  a  fate  she  must,  at  all  hazards,  be 
saved.  The  idea  of  separation  was  an  old  one.  That  men 
living  under  such  varieties  of  climate,  eating  such  different 
kinds  of  food,  believing  such  different  creeds,  and  following 
such  different  occupations,  could  long  be  held  in  union,  was 
never  generally  believed  till  after  the  second  war  with  Eng- 
land. Long  before  the  Constitution  was  framed,  the  secession 
of  the  country  beyond  the  mountains  and  the  formation  of  a 
Western  Republic  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  was  the 
dream  of  such  scheming  politicians  as  Wilkinson,  and  the  ever- 
present  dread  of  such  earnest  patriots  as  Washington.  Long 
after  the  Constitution  was  adopted,  in  the  stormy  days  of  the 
Alien  and  Sedition  laws  and  the  contested  election  of  1801, 
separation  was  again  discussed  openly.  "  The  Potomac  the 
Boundary,  the  Negro  States  by  themselves,"  became  a  toast 
in  more  than  one  goodly  company,  and  was  boldly  hung  up 
in  the  Merchants'  Coffee-House  at  Philadelphia.  In  the  Con- 
necticut Courant  long  disunion  essays  appeared  over  the  sig- 
natures of  Pelham,  Gustavus,  and  Raleigh.  The  Hudson  or 
the  Delaware  ought,  in  the  opinion  of  these  writers,  to  be 
the  boundary  of  a  Northern  Confederacy.  But  by  the  great 
body  of  New  England  men  this  suggestion  was  never  heeded. 
Their  bodily  comforts  were  in  no  way  touched  by  the  acts  of 
Congress.  They  paid  no  stamp  taxes,  no  direct  taxes,  no  ex- 
cise taxes.  Their  crops  were  as  plentiful,  their  voyages  were 
as  successful,  their  catches  were  as  large  under  Jefferson  as 
they  had  been  under  Washington  or  Adams.  Money  had 
never  been  so  abundant.  Labor  had  never  been  so  well  re- 
paid. The  whole  community  was  growing  richer,  more  pros- 


44    RESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.    CHAP.  xv. 

perous,  more  happy  every  day.  Such  men  were  in  the  very 
worst  condition  to  be  aroused  to  rebellion.  The  most  the  arts 
of  politicians  could  persuade  their  representatives  to  do  was 
to  ask  for  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.* 

The  State  to  propose  this  amendment  was  Massachusetts. 
There  the  people  were  firmly  convinced  that  the  Common- 
wealth was  in  great  danger ;  that  a  crisis  was  at  hand  ;  that 
her  sovereignty,  her  independence  were  fast  being  taken  away ; 
that  she  was  already  a  cipher  in  the  national  councils ;  that 
the  South,  united  in  a  common  policy  and  ruled  by  the  influ- 
ence of  Virginia,  governed  the  country,  and  that  this  power  of 
the  South  over  the  North  was  due  to  the  system  of  slave  rep- 
resentation. The  whole  number  of  slaves  in  the  South  at  this 
moment,  they  would  argue,  is  eight  hundred  and  forty-eight 
thousand.  Three  fifths  of  these  are  represented,  and  three 
fifths  divided  by  the  ratio  of  representation  f  gives  fifteen. 
There  are  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  therefore,  fif- 
teen negro  representatives.  This  number  is  greater  by  one 
than  the  whole  number  to  which  New  Hampshire,  Connecti- 
cut, and  Rhode  Island  are  entitled ;  is  less  by  two  than  the 
number  of  representatives  of  Massachusetts;  has  repeatedly 
been  found  sufficient  to  secure  legislation  hurtful  to  New 
England  and,  at  the  election  of  1801,  determined  the  choice  of 
a  President.  The  South,  having  secured  these  advantages  in 
the  House,  is  now  about  to  secure  like  control  over  the  Sen- 
ate. An  enormous  territory  had  been  purchased  in  the  West 
to  be  cut  up  into  new  slave  States,  with  two  votes  each  in  the 
Senate.  What  then  will  become  of  the  interests  of  New 
England  ?  What  will  become  of  her  commerce,  of  her  manu- 
factures, of  her  fisheries,  of  that  liberty  and  independence  for 
which  she  began  the  revolution  of  1776  ?  They  will  be 
wholly  at  the  mercy  of  men  whose  seats  in  the  House  and  in 
the  Senate  are  due  to  importations  from  the  coast  of  Guinea. 
To  prevent  this  evil  may  perhaps  be  impossible ;  but  to  re- 
tard its  approach  is  easy.  Letvthe  Constitution  be  amended. 

*  A  collection  of  the  sentiments  of  public  men  on  secession  between  1 790  and 
1804  may  be  found  in  the  Life  of  William  Plumer.  By  William  Plumer,  pp. 
277-284.  t  *  =  33,000. 


1804.  THE  ELY  AMENDMENT.  45 

Let  that  provision  which  gives  to  twenty  thousand  owners  of 
fifty  thousand  slaves  the  same  voice  in  an  election  as  fifty 
thousand  free  men  be  stricken  out.  Let  there  be  one  rule 
for  North  and  South,  and  let  that  rule  be  "  representation 
according  to  free  population."  The  demand  was  heard,  and 
in  June  a  motion  calling  for  an  amendment  to  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  was  laid  before  the  General  Court. 
The  preamble  of  the  motion  set  forth  that  the  representation 
of  slaves  was  a  concession  of  the  East  to  the  South ;  that  it 
was  unjust  and  hurtful  at  the  very  start ;  that  the  injury  had 
since  been  increased  by  the  multiplication  of  slaves  and  by  the 
purchase  of  Louisiana ;  that  the  union  of  the  States  could  not 
exist  on  principles  of  inequality ;  and  that,  in  order  to  pre- 
serve the  Union,  the  Constitution  ought  to  be  so  amended  that 
representation  and  direct  taxes  should  be  apportioned  among 
the  States  according  to  free  population.* 
*  The  resistance  of  the  Republicans  to  its  passage  was  little 
more  than  form.  They  declared  it  to  be  unnecessary ;  assured 
the  Federalists  that  thirteen  States  would  never  approve ;  pro- 
nounced it  the  work  of  alarmists,  of  men  determined  to  break 
up  the  Union ;  reminded  the  Legislature  that  breaking  up  the 
Union  meant  dividing  the  national  debt ;  that  when  the  debt 
.was  divided  each  section  would  become  responsible  for  so 
.  much  as  was  owned  by  its  citizens;  that  south  of  Pennsyl- 
'  vania  there  were  not  fourteen  hundred  holders  of  Government 
stock ;  that  east  of  Pennsylvania  there  were  eight  thousand, 

•  and  these  would  have  to  be  paid  by  taxes  and  excises  laid  on 
the  farmers,  the  merchants,  and  the  commercial  men  of  New 

-  England.f    Nevertheless,  the  Ely  amendment,  as  it  was  called, 
passed,  and  in  December  was  laid  before  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States  by  Timothy  Pickering,  and  speedily  forgotten. 

As  is  customary  in  such  cases,  copies  of  the  Massachusetts 
resolutions  were  sent  to  each  of  the  States.  Two  postponed 
consideration.^:  From  each  of  the  others  came  an  answer,  and 
the  answer  in  each  case  was  No.  Virginia  declared  that  the 
article  to  be  amended  was  one  of  the  compromises  in  the  Consti- 

*  Democrat,  June  16,  1804.     A  Defence  of  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts, 
or  the  Rights  of  New  England  Vindicated.     Boston,  1804. 

f  Democrat,  August  18,  1804.  $  Connecticut  and  Delaware. 


46     RESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.    CHAP.  xv. 

tution ;  was  therefore  fundamental  and  ought  to  be  among  the 
last  to  be  changed,  lest  change  should  destroy  reliance  on  that 
good  faith  which  is  the  cement  of  the  Union  and  the  guarantee 
of  the  political  fabric  on  which  the  Union  rests.*  To  alter  the 
system  of  apportioning  representation  and  direct  taxes  would, 
Maryland  declared,  loosen  the  ties  by  which  the  States  are 
happily  confederated,  scatter  seeds  of  disunion,  and  produce 
anarchy — a  state  of  things  from  which  every  reflecting  mind 
must  turn  with  terror  and  abhorrence.f  South  Carolina  pro- 
nounced it  incompatible  with  the  rights  and  interests  of  the 
State,  and  an  innovation  on  the  system  of  reciprocal  concilia- 
tion established  by  the  Constitution.;}:  Ohio  resolved  that  the 
amendment  was  inexpedient,  would  excite  State  jealousies, 
destroy  that  confidence  and  good  understanding  which  then 
prevailed,  and  endanger  the  Union.*  The  answer  of  Pennsyl- 
vania was  long  and  exhaustive.  The  statements  of  Massa- 
chusetts, that  the  rule  for  the  apportionment  of  representation 
was  unjust  at  the  start ;  that  it  had  been  made  more  so  by  the 
increase  of  slaves  and  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  ;  and  that  the 
amendment  was  necessary  to  preserve  the  harmony  and  union 
of  the  States,  were  examined  one  by  one,  and  the  opinion 
expressed  that  to  alter  the  Constitution  as  Massachusetts 
wished  would  hasten  rather  than  hinder  the  evils  it  was  in- 
tended to  prevent.  |  Kentucky  laid  down  four  propositions 
which  she  held  ought  not  to  be  disputed : A  In  a  confederation 
of  States  the  principles  by  which  they  shall  be  governed  are  a 
subject  of  agreement  between  the  contracting  parties;  that 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  such  an  agreement ; 
that  some  of  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution,  being  adapted 
to  the  peculiar  situation  of  some  of  the  States,  were  conditions 
without  which  those  States  would  not  have  entered  the  Union  ; 
that  the  mode  of  representation  was  such  a  condition  to  which 
the  slave -holding  States  agreed  in  full  confidence  that  it 
was  just  and  not  oppressive.  She  believed,  therefore,  that  a 
change  might  be  followed  by  the  disruption  of  the  Union. 
From  Vermont,  from  Rhode  Island,  from  New  Hampshire 

*  Aurora,  January  3,  1805.  *  Aurora,  February  20,  1805. 

f  Aurora,  January  17,  1805.  |  Aurora,  January  7,  1805. 

\  Aurora,  January  21,  1805.  A  Democrat,  February  13,  1805. 


1804.  ELY   AMENDMENT  REJECTED.  47 

and  New  York,  New  Jersey  and  North  Carolina,  from  Georgia 
and  Tennessee,  came  back  answers  of  a  similar  kind.  Never 
before  nor  since  did  an  amendment  offered  by  any  State  re- 
ceive a  more  crushing  condemnation.  As  reply  after  reply 
was  issued,  the  joy  of  the  Republicans  rose  high.  The  end 
and  aim,  they  said,  was  plain  from  the  start.  It  never  was 
designed  to  be  attached  to  the  Constitution.  It  was  sent  forth 
to  gather  public  opinion  on  the  fitness  of  dividing  the  Union, 
and  it  was  with  unfeigned  joy  that  they  saw  it  receive  the 
approbation  of  no  second  State. 

"When  the  Republicans  told  their  Federal  associates  in  the 
Massachusetts  General  Court  that  the  Ely  amendment  was  the 
work  of  men  ready  to  break  up  the  Union,  they  spoke  more 
truly  than  they  knew.  For  months  past  the  leaders  of  the 
New  England  Federalists  had  been  seriously  planning  and  dis- 
cussing secession.  In  this,  such  of  them  as  had  seats  in  Con- 
gress were  especially  busy.  Indeed,  the  very  fact  that  they 
were  in  Congress  made  them  rebellious.  Reduced  to  a  minor- 
ity by  the  election  of  Jefferson,  they  had  been  compelled  to 
sit  month  after  month  as  the  idle  beholders  of  the  destruction 
of  what  they  were  pleased  to  call  the  Federal  edifice.  They 
had  seen  the  navy  ruined,  the  army  reduced  to  a  handful,  the 
whole  system  of  Federal  taxation  swept  away,  the  judiciary 
act  repealed,  and  judges,  duly  appointed  and  duly  commis- 
sioned by  Adams,  denied  the  right  of  serving.  They  had  seen 
Louisiana  purchased,  and  the  twelfth  amendment  to  the  Con- 
stitution sent  out  to  the  States.  Against  all  this  their  pro- 
tests, their  speeches,  their  votes  availed  nothing.  Galled  past 
all  bearing  by  unending  defeat,  they  had  now  reached  a  pass 
when  they  could  see  nothing  good  in  any  act  of  the  Republi- 
can majority.  The  proposed  amendment  to  the  Constitution 
was  for  the  sole  purpose  of  making  Mr.  Jefferson  President  a 
second  time.  Louisiana  had  been  bought  to  keep  the  Vir- 
ginians in  power,  and  enable  them  to  ruin  New  England.  To 
keep  the  Virginians  in  power  the  Senate  and  House  must  be 
Republican.  To  insure  the  Senate  being  always  Republican, 
there  must  be  more  slave  States.  An  immense  wilderness  had 
therefore  been  purchased,  and  was  already  being  cut  up  into 
embryo  slave  States.  To  keep  the  House  Republican,  there 


48     KESULTS   OF  THE  PUKOHASE   OF  LOUISIANA.    CHAP.  xv. 

must  be  more  slave  representatives.  To  get  these  there  must 
be  more  slaves,  and  to  get  more  slaves  South  Carolina  had 
repealed  her  law,  had  opened  the  port  of  Charleston  to  the 
slave  trade,  and  in  a  few  months  a  stream  of  wretched  blacks, 
dragged  from  the  coast  of  Guinea  and  the  marts  of  the  Spanish 
Indies,  would  be  hurrying  over  the  mountains  into  the  new 
domain. ' 

Federalists  out  of  Congress  might  be  content  to  grumble 
and  to  write ;  those  in  Congress,  driven  to  despair  by  the 
hopeless  struggle  with  the  majority,  were  disposed  to  act,  and 
to  act  vigorously.  Chief  among  them  was  Timothy  Pickering, 
and  with  him  in  this  way  of  thinking  were  Roger  Griswold, 
Uriah  Tracy,  William  Plumer,  and,  in  time,  Aaron  Burr. 

The  wildness  of  the  plan  arranged  by  these  men  is  of  itself 
conclusive  proof  of  the  depth  of  their  despair  and  the  intem- 
perance of  their  political  zeal.  Nothing  seemed  to  them  easier 
than  to  set  up  their  Confederacy.  Men  favorable  to  secession 
had  but  to  get  together  in  some  New  England  State  and 
choose  a  General  Court  and  Governor  pledged  to  support 
disunion.  The  General  Court  must  then  repeal  the  law  au- 
thorizing the  election  of  members  of  Congress,  set  up  custom- 
houses and  post-offices,  and,  when  the  time  came,  refuse  to 
elect  United  States  Senators.  Could  Massachusetts  be  per- 
suaded to  lead  the  way,  Connecticut  and  New  Hampshire 
would  follow,  and  Rhode  Island  come  in  of  necessity.  To 
secure  New  York  would  be  more  difficult,  but  even  of  her  they 
did  not  lose  hope.  Indeed,  so  great  was  their  infatuation 
that  they  fully  expected  to  be  joined  by  New  Jersey  and  by 
Pennsylvania  east  of  the  Susquehanna,  and  by  the  British 
provinces  of  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick.  The  plan 
formed,  their  next  step  was  to  make  it  known  to  their  con- 
stituents, and  letters  were  soon  despatched  to  the  Federal  lead- 
ers in  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts.  Not  one  of  them  sent 
back  an  encouraging  reply.  Each  admitted  that  a  crisis  was 
near.  Each  admitted  that  a  separation  was  greatly  to  be  de- 
sired ;  but  each  insisted  that  such  a  step  at  such  a  time  could 
only  end  in  failure.  The  people  were  not  ready  for  it.  They 
must  wait  till  something  happened ;  till  a  war  had  been  pro- 
voked by  Great  Britain  or  France ;  till  the  proposed  amend- 


1804.  BUKR  FOR  GOVERNOR.  4.9 

ment  had  been  rejected  by  New  England  and  accepted  else- 
where ;  till  some  measure,  severely  felt  and  clearly  chargeable 
to  the  misconduct  of  the  South,  had  roused  and  united  the 
people  of  New  England  against  the  Administration. 

To  this  advice  the  plotters  turned  a  deaf  ear.  They  would 
not  be  convinced,  for,  at  the  very  time  their  friends  were  urg- 
ing them  to  hold  back,  an  event  occurred  which  encouraged 
them  to  go  forward.  Aaron  Burr  had  been  nominated  for  the 
Governorship  of  New  York.  Since  the  February  day,  1801, 
when  he  consented  to  stand  as  the  competitor  of  Jefferson  for 
the  Presidency,  Burr  had  been  an  outcast  from  his  party.  His 
friends  had  been  proscribed.  No  patronage  had  been  awarded 
him,  and  he  had  three  times  been  foully  lampooned  in  long 
and  tiresome  pamphlets  written  by  James  Cheetham.  The 
Albany  Register  followed  the  lead  of  Cheetham.  The  whole 
Republican  press  of  New  York  followed  the  Register;  and 
Burr,  attacked  on  all  sides,  began  to  struggle  hard  for  politi- 
cal existence.  His  friend,  William  Peter  Yan  Ness,  replied  to 
Cheetham.  Burr  himself  sought  aid,  first  of  the  President, 
and  then  of  the  Federalists.  His  interview  with  Jefferson 
took  place  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  January,  and  amounted  to  a 
request  that,  as  he  must  fall  from  place  and  power,  he  might 
be  suffered  to  fall  by  easy  stages. 

He  knew,  he  said,  that  it  would  be  well  for  the  Republican 
cause  that  he  should  quit  politics.  A  dangerous  schism  would 
otherwise  take  place.  But  he  could  not  retire  while  he  was 
the  subject  of  calumnies  stirred  up  by  the  Clintons  and  the 
Livingstons.  If  he  did,  they  would  say  he  shrank  from  the 
public  verdict,  and  this  he  never  would  do.  All  could  be  pre- 
vented if  Jefferson  would  bestow  on  him  some  mark  of  favor, 
some  office  that  would  show  to  the  world  that  he  retired  with 
the  undiminished  confidence  of  the  President.*  %  The  request 
was  refused,  and  he  went  away  determined  to  get  an  office  in 
spite  of  the  rebuff.  As  it  happened,  the  people  of  the  State 
of  New  York  were  about  to  elect  a  Governor,  and  toward 
this  office  he  now  turned  his  eyes.  In  February,  accordingly, 
his  friends  in  the  Legislature  of  New  York  announced  that 

*  Anas,  January  20,  1804.     Works,  ix,  p.  204. 
TOL.  ni. — 5 


50     RESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.    CHAP.  xv. 

they  would  on  a  certain  day  hold  a  caucus  and  nominate  him.* 
Such  Federalists  as  happened  to  be  in  Albany  instantly  called 
a  meeting  to  discuss  what  to  do.  The  place  was  a  room  in 
Lewis's  Tavern.  "What  there  took  place  it  was  intended  to 
keep  secret.  But,  hidden  away  in  the  room  adjoining  that  in 
which  the  meeting  was  held,  were  two  of  the  friends  of  Aaron 
Burr.  By  them  the  proceedings  were  overheard,  repeated, 
and  given  to  the  world  through  the  columns  of  the  Morning 
Chronicle.  The  purpose  of  the  caucus  was  to  decide  whether 
the  support  of  the  Federal  party  ought  to  be  given  to  Aaron 
Burr  or  thrown  away  on  a  candidate  of  its  own.  Many  were 
well  disposed  toward  Burr,  but  Hamilton  was  present,  read  a 
long  paper  on  the  political  character  of  the  Yice-President, 
and  persuaded  the  majority  of  those  who  heard  him  to  give 
their  support  to  Chancellor  John  Lansing.  "When  Lansing 
declined,  and  Morgan  Lewis  was  nominated,  Hamilton  was 
greatly  displeased.  Thenceforth  he  took  but  little  interest  in 
the  election.  His  followers  inclined  more  and  more  toward 
Burr,  and  for  a  time  it  seemed  not  unlikely  that  Lewis  would 
fail  of  election. 

True  to  their  promise,  the  discontented  Republicans  nomi- 
nated Burr  on  the  eighteenth  of  February.  Two  days  later 
the  nomination  was  ratified  by  a  meeting  of  his  friends  in 
New  York  city.  The  resolutions  drawn  up  on  that  evening 
set  forth  that  George  Clinton  had  refused  a  renomination, 
that  it  became  necessary  to  find  a  successor,  and  that  the  man 
most  deserving  to  be  his  successor  was  Aaron  Burr.  His  mili- 
tary services  during  the  Revolutionary  "War,  his  political  tal- 
ents, his  republican  integrity,  his  fixed  and  well-known  princi- 
ples, marked  him  out  above  all  others  for  the  place  and  en- 
titled him  to  the  esteem  and  support  of  his  fellow-citizens. 

By  Pickering  and  his  friends  the  nomination  of  Burr  was 
hailed  with  delight.  From  the  very  first  they  wished  him 
well.  He  alone  could,  as  they  expressed  it,  break  the  Demo- 
cratic phalanx,  and  this  once  broken,  there  was  a  fine  chance 
to  secure  New  York  for  their  Northern  Confederacy.  To  do 
this,  it  was  merely  necessary  to  bring  over  the  Federalists  to 

*  Albany  Register,  March  6,  1804. 


1804.  THE  ELECTION   IN  NEW  YORK.  51 

his  support  and  elect  him  Governor.  Once  Governor  of  New 
York,  he  would  be  set  free  from  Yirginia  influence.  Then 
would  be  the  time  to  open  their  plans  to  him,  offer  the  leader- 
ship of  the  party,  make  him  chief  of  the  new  confederacy, 
and  so  add  New  York,  and  perhaps  New  Jersey,  to  the  five 
New  England  States. 

Encouraged  by  the  prospect,  Pickering  and  Griswold  re- 
fused to  give  up  their  plan.  Indeed,  Congress  no  sooner 
rose  than  they  hastened  to  New  York  to  canvass  openly  in 
Burr's  behalf.  Long  conferences  were  held  with  Rufus 
King,  with  Hamilton,  and  on  one  occasion  with  Burr. 
Even  at  Boston  the  result  of  the  election  was  awaited  with 
interest.  There  on  the  twenty-seventh  of  April,  four  days 
after  the  election  took  place,  but  before  the  result  was 
known,  a  great  dinner  was  given  at  the  Concert  Hall  to 
Christopher  Gore.  In  the  list  of  toasts  were  three  which 
well  expressed  the  sentiments  of  the  company.  The  first 
was,  "  Yirginia  Dominion — may  it  be  bounded  by  the  Con- 
stitution or  by  the  Delaware."  Another  was,  "  The  Feder- 
al virtues  are  obliged  to  swarm  from  the  seat  of  Government 
— may  they  find  a  hive  in  the  North."  The  last  was, 
"  Aaron's  Rod — may  it  blossom  in  New  York,  and  may  Fed- 
eralists be  still  and  applaud  while  the  great  serpent  swallows 
up  the  less." 

In  New  York  the  campaign  was  marked  by  savageness,  by 
vindictiveness,  by  scurrility,  and  by  blood.  Never  had  party 
spirit  run  higher.  Old  friends  ceased  to  speak.  Partners 
quarrelled,  social  intercourse  was  broken  off,  and  business  was 
seriously  interrupted.  When  at  last  the  election  was  over, 
Burr  was  defeated.  In  the  South  the  news  was  welcomed 
with  delight.  There  is,  it  was  said,  a  deep-laid  scheme  to 
part  the  union  of  these  States.  Had  Burr  succeeded  to  the 
governorship  of  New  York,  the  scheme  would  have  gone  on. 
The  whole  aristocracy  of  the  Eastern  States  is  at  the  bottom 
of  it,  and  there  are  active  partisans  even  in  New  Jersey.  In- 
deed, the  Delaware  was  to  have  been  the  dividing  line.  The 
new  government  was,  to  have  been  aristocratic  in  form,  and, 
when  well  under  way,  was  to  have  sent  agents  to  stir  up  the 
negroes  in  the  South,  and  was  to  have  called  on  England  to 


52      RESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.   CHAP.  xv. 

seize  Louisiana.*  To  the  New  England  leaders  the  defeat 
was  most  disappointing.  But  a  blow  heavier  still  was  soon 
to  follow.  By  Burr  and  "  the  little  band  "  the  success  of 
Lewis  was  ascribed  to  one  cause — the  never-ending  meddling 
of  Hamilton.  The  paper  which  he  read  to  the  caucus  at 
Albany,  the  conversations  held  with  the  leaders  in  private,  the 
influence  he  exercised  at  New  York,  had  been  the  cause  of  it  all. 
Once  again  had  Hamilton  stood  in  the  way.  But  he  had  done 
so  for  the  last  time,  for  Burr  deliberately  and  in  cold  blood 
now  determined  to  kill  him.  Some  pretext  for  a  duel  was 
necessary,  and  this  pretext  Burr  found  in  a  couple  of  letters 
which,  during  the  campaign,  had  appeared  in  the  Albany 
Register  and,  as  handbills,  had  been  sent  through  the  mails 
into  every  county  in  the  State. 

The  first  was  written  by  Charles  D.  Cooper,  was  addressed 
to  Andrew  Brown,  of  Bern,  not  far  from  Albany,  and  con- 
tained the  substance  of  a  conversation  overheard  at  a  dinner. 
Dining  one  day  in  February  with  Judge  Taylor,  Cooper  met 
Hamilton,  who,  in  the  course  of  conversation,  said  that  Mr. 
Burr  was  a  dangerous  man  and  ought  not  to  be  trusted  with 
the  reins  of  Government.  The  letter  was  written  for  political 
effect,  was  printed,  and  promptly  answered  by  Philip  Schuy- 
ler.  He  assured  the  chairman  of  the  Republican  Committee 
at  Albany  that  Judge  Kent  and  the  Patroon  were  supporters 
of  Lewis,  and  that  General  Hamilton  was  taking  no  part 
whatever  in  the  contest.  This,  with  much  more,  was  put  in 
the  form  of  a  handbill  by  the  Republican  Committee  and  scat- 
tered over  the  State.  As  soon  as  he  saw  it  Cooper  replied, 
and  in  the  reply  asserted  that  he  could  mention  a  still  more 
despicable  opinion  General  Hamilton  held  of  Burr.  The  next 
day  the  whole  correspondence  was  made  public  in  the  Albany 
Register.f 

In  these  two  letters  of  Cooper  was  found  the  excuse  that 
Burr  sought.  He  carefully  cut  them  from  a  newspaper,  en- 
closed them  in  a  written  demand  for  a  prompt  denial,  and  on 
June  eighteenth  sent  the  demand  by  the  hands  of  William  P. 
Van  Ness  to  Hamilton.  Then  began  that  long  and  curious 

*  Republican  Advertiser  (Fredericktown,  Maryland),  May  25,  1801. 
f  Albany  Register,  April  24,  1804. 


1804.  DEATH  OF  HAMILTON.  53 

correspondence  which  ended  June  twenty-seventh  in  a  formal 
challenge  from  Burr.  The  challenge  was  accepted,  and  in  the 
early  sunlight  of  a  July  morning  the  two  were  rowed  across 
the  Hudson  River  and  met  under  the  rocky  heights  of  "Wee- 
hawken.  Hamilton  is  said  to  have  fired  in  the  air.  Burr, 
who  is  charged  by  his  enemies  with  taking  a  deliberate  and 
steady  aim,  shot  Hamilton  through  the  body  and  he  fell  face 
forward  on  the  ground.  The  wound  was  mortal,  and,  after 
lingering  in  great  pain  for  thirty-one  hours,  he  died  on  the 
afternoon  of  Thursday  the  twelfth  of  July. 

News  of  the  duel  reached  New  York  by  nine  o'clock  on 
the  morning  of  the  shooting.  A  notice  was  at  once  put  up  in 
the  great  room  of  the  Tontine  Coffee-House,  and  was  followed 
by  others  every  few  hours.  When  death  was  announced,  the 
merchants  met,  urged  the  citizens  to  stop  all  business,  close 
their  shops,  put  their  flags  at  half-mast,  and  attend  the  funeral 
in  a  body.  The  Common  Council  suspended  the  ordinance 
against  the  tolling  of  bells.  Every  society,  every  association, 
St.  Andrew,  Tammany,  the  Marines,  the  Mechanics,  hastened 
to  draw  up  resolutions  of  condolence.  Never,  it  was  said,  had 
the  city  been  wrapped  in  such  gloom.  On  the  day  of  the  funeral 
every  church  bell  was  muffled  and  tolled  from  six  to  seven  in  the 
morning  and  from  seven  to  eight  in  the  evening.  In  the  pro- 
cession were  the  clergy  of  all  denominations,  the  gentlemen 
of  the  bar  in  deep  mourning,  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  the 
Corporation  of  the  city,  the  resident  agents  of  foreign  powers, 
the  militia,  the  merchants,  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  the 
masters  of  vessels  in  the  port,  the  societies,  the  faculty  and 
students  of  Columbia  College,  and  a  great  host  of  citizens,  con- 
spicuous among  whom  were  the  friends  of  Burr.  Along  the 
line  of  march  the  sidewalks,  the  stoops,  the  trees,  the  windows, 
the  housetops  were  black  with  mourning  people.  Thousands, 
it  was  said,  were  forced  to  climb  into  the  trees  or  go  upon 
the  housetops  to  get  a  view.  As  the  procession  went  slowly 
through  the  streets  to  Trinity  Church,  minute-guns  were  fired 
from  the  Battery,  and  were  answered  by  the  English  war 
ship  Boston  and  the  French  frigates  Cyb&le  and  Didon. 
During  six  weeks,  what  were  called  tributes  of  respect  con- 
tinued to  be  paid  to  the  memory  of  Hamilton  in  Boston,  in 


54:      RESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xv. 

Poughkeepsie,  in  Trenton,  in  Philadelphia,  and  in  great  num- 
bers of  towns  of  lesser  note.  Hardly  a  Federalist  the  land 
over  but  for  thirty  days  wore  a  band  on  his  hat  or  crape  on 
his  arm. 

Burr  meantime  dared  not  appear  in  public.  For  ten  days 
he  kept  close  to  his  house  and  grounds  at  Richmond  Hill 
and  anxiously  awaited  the  verdict  of  the  coroner's  jury.  At 
last,  on  the  evening  of  the  twenty-first,  with  his  friend  Swart- 
wout  he  stole  away,  entered  a  barge  provided  for  the  purpose, 
and  was  rowed  all  night  long  down  the  river  and  bay  to  Perth 
Amboy.  Early  on  the  twenty-second  he  landed  at  the  home 
of  Commodore  Truxton,  was  kindly  received,  and  spent  the 
day,  which  was  Sunday.  Next  morning  he  was  driven  over 
to  Cranberry,  whence  he  went  by  unfrequented  roads  and 
private  wagons  to  Philadelphia.  There  he  boldly  showed 
himself,  was  often  seen  on  the  streets,  and  was  much  in  the 
company  of  the  English  Minister.  Yet  even  at  Philadelphia 
he  did  not  feel  safe.  On  the  second  of  August  the  coroner's 
jury  at  New  York  found  him  guilty  of  murder.  The  Grand 
Jury  told  the  District  Attorney  to  prosecute  him,  and  Burr, 
fearing  that  a  requisition  would  be  made  on  the  Governor  of 
Pennsylvania  for  his  arrest,  determined  to  flee  once  more. 
Before  setting  out,  however,  he  took  the  next  step  in  that 
career  of  treason  which  links  his  name  with  the  name  of 
Arnold,  and  consigns  it  to  everlasting  infamy. 

It  was  then  the  custom  for  foreign  Ministers,  the  moment 
Congress  adjourned,  to  quit  the  heat  and  desolation  of  Wash- 
ington and  seek  for  social  pleasures  in  some  Eastern  city. 
For  this  purpose  no  city  was  such  a  favorite  as  Philadelphia, 
and  there,  in  the  summer  of  1804,  Anthony  Merry  was  passing 
the  time.  Burr  was  no  stranger  to  Merry ;  yet,  in  the  busi- 
ness he  now  had  in  hand,  the  Vice-President  thought  it  pru- 
dent to  employ  a  go-between,  and  selected  as  such  Colonel 
Charles  Williamson.  Just  what  took  place  cannot  be  known  ; 
but  it  is  certain,  from  the  letter  Merry  wrote  Lord  Harrowby, 
that  Burr,  through  Williamson,  applied  for  English  help  to 
break  up  the  Union.  Merry,  smarting  under  the  rude  treat- 
ment, or,  as  Jefferson  considered  it,  the  republican  treatment 
he  had  received  at  Washington,  readily  fell  in  with  the  plan, 


1804.  BURK'S  SCHEMES.  55 

and  Williamson  was  soon  on  his  way  to  London  with  letters 
of  introduction.*  This  done,  Burr  and  his  friend  Swartwout 
boarded  a  vessel  and  put  out  to  sea.  They  had,  it  was  said, 
gone  to  Spanish  America.  But  they  really  went  to  the  Island 
of  St.  Simon,  in  Georgia,  whence  in  time  Burr  passed  across 
the  State,  visited  his  daughter  Theodosia  in  South  Carolina, 
and  was  back  in  Washington  just  before  Congress  met. 

All  hope  of  a  Northern  Confederacy,  with  himself  for  the 
chief,  was  now  abandoned.  But  his  scheme  for  a  great  con- 
federacy in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  the  scheme  he  had 
in  August  so  carefully  unfolded  to  Merry,  became,  on  that  ac- 
count, all  the  more  attractive.  Indeed,  it  may  well  be  doubted 
if,  through  all  that  long  winter,  it  was  ever  for  a  day  absent 
from  his  thoughts.  As  first  steps  to  its  accomplishment,  how- 
ever, three  things  seemed  necessary.  He  must  identify  him- 
self closely  with  Western  men ;  he  must  remain  in  poli tical 
life ;  and  he  must,  if  possible,  become  the  representative  of 
the  political  life  of  the  West.  How  these  steps  were  to  be 
taken  was  hard  to  know ;  but  the  way  was  soon  made  clear 
by  James  Wilkinson,  his  old  friend,  his  fellow  conspirator, 
and  at  that  time  commander  of  the  thirty-five  hundred  men 
who  made  up  the  army  of  the  United  States.  By  him  one 
Western  man  after  another,  John  Fowler,  who  sat  for  a  dis- 
trict of  Kentucky ;  Matthew  Lyon,  another  representative 
from  that  State  ;  Peter  Derbigny,  one  of  the  three  dele- 
gates sent  by  the  discontented  Creoles  of  Louisiana,  was 
brought  up  and  introduced  to  Burr.  On  them  were  lavished 
all  those  winning  graces  for  which  he  was  so  renowned,  and 
by  means  of  the  advice  and  information  they  furnished  a  plan 
was  soon  arranged.  Burr,  it  was  decided,  should  quit  the 
East ;  should1  live  henceforth  in  the  West ;  should  there  begin 

*  "  I  have  just  received  an  offer  from  Mr.  Burr,  the  actual  Vice-President  of 
the  United  States  [which  situation  he  is  about  to  resign],  to  lend  his  assistance  to 
his  Majesty's  Government  in  any  manner  in  which  they  may  think  fit  to  employ 
him,  particularly  in  endeavoring  to  effect  a  separation  of  the  western  part  of  the 
United  States  from  that  which  lies  between  the  Atlantic  and  the  mountains,  in 
its  whole  extent.  His  proposition  on  this  and  other  subjects  will  be  fully  de- 
tailed to  your  Lordship  by  Colonel  Williamson,  who  has  been  the  bearer  of  them 
to  me,  and  who  will  embark  for  England  in  a  few  days." — Merry  to  Lord  Har- 
rowby,  August  6,  1804.  Adams's  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  ii,  p.  395. 


56      RESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xv. 

anew  that  splendid  political  career  so  suddenly  ended  in  the 
East,  and  should  take  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
as  Congressman  from  some  "Western  State.  Lyon  suggested 
Tennessee,  as  in  that  State  residence  was  not  required.  Some 
one,  perhaps  Derbigny,  suggested  that  he  become  a  delegate 
from  the  new  government  about  to  be  organized  in  the  ter- 
ritory of  Orleans.  With  this  plan  Burr  pretended  to  be 
greatly  taken,  and  lost  no  time  in  preparing  for  a  journey 
to  New  Orleans.  That  his  desire  to  remain  in  public  life  was 
to  hide  a  design  to  split  the  Union  was  no  secret.  Derbigny 
had  betrayed  it  to  Louis  Marie  Turreau.  Turreau  represented 
the  French  Empire  at  Washington,  and  by  him,  a  few  days 
after  Congress  rose,  the  whole  plan  was  made  known  to  Tal- 
leyrand.* Anthony  Merry,  who  represented  England,  knew  it 
already.  Indeed,  before  Burr  set  out  the  two  had  a  long  and 
deliberate  conference.  Merry  was  assured  that  the  people  of 
Louisiana  were  determined  to  become  independent  of  the 
United  States;  that  nothing  deterred  them  but  the  lack  of 
help  from  some  foreign  power,  and  the  lack  of  union  with  the 
people  of  the  Mississippi  valley.  This  union  Burr  declared 
he  was  determined  to  effect.  Would  Great  Britain  give  the 
foreign  aid  ?  Would  she  furnish  a  fleet  to  block  the  Missis- 
sippi, and  loan  half  a  million  dollars  to  arm  the  fighting 
men  ?  f  Again  the  English  Minister  hastened  to  send  off  a 
despatch,  and,  though  deeply  disappointed  that  nothing  had 
been  heard  from  Williamson,  Burr  departed.  From  Washing- 
ton he  crossed  the  mountains  to  Pittsburg,  and  floated  down 
the  Ohio  to  Cincinnati.  As  he  drifted  slowly  past  the  snags 
and  sawyers  he  came,  some  two  miles  below  Parkersburg,  in 
sight  of  the  island  home  of  the  most  famous  and  the  most 
unfortunate  of  his  many  victims. 

Herman,  or,  as  he  wrote  the  name,  Harman  Blennerhas- 
set  was  born  of  Irish  parents  in  Hampshire,  England,  in  1T64. 
As  a  younger  son,  he  was  early  destined  for  the  bar,  was  edu- 
cated at  Westminster  School,  was  graduated  from  Trinity 
College,  Dublin,  and  entered  as  an  apprentice  at  the  King's 

*  Turreau  to  Talleyrand,  9  mars,  1805.     Adams's  History  of  the  United  States, 
vol.  Si,  p.  406. 

f  Merry  to  Harrowby,  March  29,  1805. 


1805..  BUER  AND  BLENNERH  ASSET.  57 

Inns.  There,  in  1V90,  he  was  admitted  to  practice  as  a  bar- 
rister. His  elder  brother  meantime  had  died,  and,  having 
succeeded  to  the  family  estates,  he  abandoned  all  thought  of 
practice  and  began  to  travel.  He  visited  France,  came  back 
to  Ireland,  and,  for  reasons  which  can  not  be  known,  made 
ready  to  emigrate  to  America.  Having  sold  his  estate  and 
married  a  wife,  he  set  sail  in  1796,  with  a  library  and  a  col- 
lection of  what  was  called  philosophical  apparatus,  for  New 
York.  Settlers  were  then  pouring  into  Kentucky  and  the 
newly  made  State  of  Tennessee,  and  Blennerhasset,  excited 
by  the  accounts  he  heard,  started  westward  to  explore  the 
country.  His  route  took  him  to  Pittsburg,  and  down  the 
Ohio  to  Marietta.  Delighted  beyond  measure  by  the  scenery, 
he  determined  to  go  no  farther  ;  passed  some  time  in  looking 
about  for  a  spot  on  which  to  settle,  and  ended  by  buying  an 
island  in  the  Ohio,  not  far  below  the  mouth  of  the  Scioto,  and 
was  soon  wasting  his  fortune  in  laying  out  such  a  lawn  and 
putting  up  such  a  house  as  could  not  be  seen  anywhere  else  in 
the  Western  country.  On  this  island  Burr  and  his  companion 
now  landed.  As  they  sauntered  about,  examining  the  lawn, 
the  shrubs,  the  greenhouses,  a  messenger  from  Mrs.  Blenner- 
hasset bade  them  welcome  at  the  house.  At  first  they  declined. 
But  when  the  lady  heard  that  one  of  the  strangers  was  the  late 
Yice-President,  she  again  sent  and  invited  them  to  dinner. 
This  courtesy  was  accepted,  and  at  dinner  began  that  acquaint- 
ance of  which  in  time  Burr  made  so  much. 

From  the  island  he  went  on  to  Cincinnati,  turned  south- 
ward, and  stopped  a  few  days  at  Frankfort,  Kentucky.  The 
purpose  of  this  stop  was  to  hide  his  real  designs  and  keep  up 
a  pretence  of  desire  for  office ;  for  he  there  applied  to  John 
Brown,  a  Kentucky  Senator,  for  letters  to  aid  his  election  in 
Tennessee.*  Passing  on  from  Frankfort,  he  entered  Nashville 
late  in  May.  A  travelling  showman  had  lately  passed  that  way, 
arousing  the  curiosity  of  the  people  by  exhibiting  a  wax  figure 
of  Burr  as  he  appeared  when  he  slew  the  leviathan  of  Feder- 
alism under  the  heights  of  "Weehawken.f  His  journey,  there- 
fore, was  a  continuous  ovation.  At  Nashville  the  whole  town 

*  Wilkinson's  testimony.     Trial  of  Aaron  Burr,  vol.  iii,  p.  361. 
f  Scioto  Gazette,  October  9,  1806. 


58      RESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xv. 

turned  out  to  receive  him.  His  stay  of  a  week  was  one 
round  of  dinners,  receptions,  teas.  But  what  pleased  him  most 
was  the  ardent  admiration  of  Andrew  Jackson,  who  at  the 
close  of  his  visit  sent  him  down  the  Cumberland  in  a  fine 
barge.  On  the  north  bank  of  the  Ohio,  not  far  from  its 
mouth,  there  stood  the  military  post  of  Fort  Massac,  and  there, 
in  company  with  "Wilkinson,  Burr  spent  four  days.  June 
tenth,  provided  with  letters  of  introduction,  a  sergeant,  and  an 
escort  of  ten  men,  he  once  more  set  off,  with  sails  spread  and 
colors  streaming,  for  New  Orleans. 

There  he  was  in  his  element.  Every  man  he  met  seemed 
to  be  a  malcontent.  The  lingering  of  the  Spanish  officers  so 
long  after  they  should  have  gone  about  their  business  had 
convinced  some  that  Spain  would  never  consent  to  the  sale  of 
Louisiana,  and  that  the  day  was  near  when  the  Spanish  flag 
would  once  more  be  seen  flying  over  the  Place  d'Armes.  The 
suppression  of  smuggling  and  the  slave  trade  had  enraged  still 
others,  and  Burr  heard  the  Governor  and  the  Government 
denounced  on  every  hand :  "  Quel  commandant !  Quel  Gou- 
verneur !  Quel  bete  ! "  was  often  muttered  after  him  as  he 
rode  along  the  street  or  made  his  way  through  the  crowd  in  a 
ball-room.  It  was  not  possible  to  be  long  in  any  company 
without  hearing  how  shameful  it  was  to  part  the  territory ; 
how  tyrannical  to  substitute  the  English  for  the  French  tongue ; 
how  impossible  to  get  justice  in  a  court  where  an  American 
sat  on  the  bench  and  an  American  stood  at  the  bar ;  how  this 
man  had  been  deprived  of  a  Spanish  land  grant,  and  how  all 
men  were  being  forced  to  submit  their  land  titles  to  official 
inspection.  Nor  were  they  always  content  to  mutter.  More 
than  once  the  bayonet  was  used  to  put  down  disorder  at  public 
balls ;  more  than  once  the  Sheriff  made  his  arrests  with  the  aid 
of  United  States  troops.  The  city  seemed  full  of  revolution- 
ary schemes  and  of  adventurers  ready  to  carry  them  out. 
There  was  talk  of  conquest  beyond  the  Sabine  and  the  Red ; 
there  was  talk  of  driving  the  Spaniards  from  Texas  ;  nay, 
there  was  a  body  of  three  hundred  men  solemnly  pledged  to 
free  Mexico  from  Spanish  rule.*  To  these  men  Burr  seems 

*  Wilkinson's  Memoirs,  vol.  ii,  p.  883. 


1805.  BUBR  AND  WILKINSON.  59 

to  have  opened  his  heart,  and  to  have  persuaded  them  to  join 
his  plan  for  the  dismemberment  of  the  Union,  to  their  plan 
for  the  conquest  of  Mexico.  In  a  little  while,  therefore,  alarm- 
ing rumors  were  flying  about,  and  men  were  repeating  from 
mouth  to  mouth  that  a  great  revolution  was  at  hand,  that  the 
flag  of  Spain  would  soon  disappear  from  the  shores  of  the  Gulf, 
and  that  the  States  and  Territories  along  the  valleys  of  the 
Ohio  and  the  Mississippi,  with  part  of  Georgia  and  Carolina, 
were  to  be  bribed  with  the  plunder  of  the  conquered  colonies 
of  Spain,  to  separate  from  the  Union.* 

After  spending  two  weeks  most  agreeably  at  New  Orleans, 
Burr  turned  northward,  and  in  September  was  with  Wilkinson 
at  St.  Louis.  The  purpose  of  his  journey  was  now  accom- 
plished. He  had  seen  the  Western  country ;  he  had  talked 
with  Western  men.  He  was  satisfied  that  they  were  ready 
for  revolt ;  and,  full  of  hopes  for  the  success  of  his  scheme,  he 
had  come  to  report  the  good  news  to  Wilkinson.  But  he 
found  the  General  greatly  cooled.  From  Fort  Massac  Wilkin- 
son had  gone  back  to  St.  Louis  in  high  spirits.  That  he  was 
then  deep  in  a  plot  to  form  a  new  empire  in  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi  and  drive  the  Spaniards  from  Mexico,  there  can- 
not be  a  doubt.  Letters  which  he  wrote,  letters  which  he  re- 
ceived, his  whole  conduct  betray  him.  As  one  step,  he  de- 
spatched Zebulon  Pike,  apparently  to  explore  a  route  to  the 
sources  of  the  Arkansas  and  the  Red,  but  really  to  Mexico. 
As  another,  he  began  to  sound  his  officers  one  by  one.  He 
told  them  that  a  change  had  come  over  the  politics  of  the 
country ;  that  the  purpose  of  the  Democrats  was  to  produce  a 
state  of  anarchy  and  confusion ;  that  they  were  about  to  seize 
on  the  property  of  the  Federalists  and  divide  it  among  them- 
selves ;  hinted  that  a  military  empire  was  soon  to  be  set  up  in 
Louisiana,  and  declared  that  a  grand  scheme  was  on  foot  that 
would  not  only  make  his  fortune  but  the  fortunes  of  all  who 
went  with  him.  Receiving  no  encouragement  from  his  offi- 
cers, Wilkinson  grew  despondent,  and  in  this  frame  of  mind 
Burr  found  him  in  September.  Nothing  could  rouse  him. 
On  one  day  Burr  denounced  the  Government  as  imbecile,  as 

*  Daniel  Clark  to  James  Wilkinson,  September  7, 1805.    Wilkinson's  Memoirs, 
vol.  ii;  Appendix,  xxxiii. 


60      RESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.   CHAP.  xv. 

mouldering  to  pieces,  and  asserted  that  the  "Western  people 
were  ripe  for  revolt.  "  My  friend,"  said  Wilkinson,  "  if  you 
have  not  profited  more  by  your  journey  in  other  respects  than, 
in  this,  you  would  better  have  stayed  in  "Washington.  Surely 
no  person  was  ever  more  mistaken.  The  Western  people  dis- 
affected to  the  Government !  They  are  bigoted  to  Jefferson 
and  Democracy."  On  another  day  Burr  sought  by  deprecia- 
tion, by  sneers,  to  disgust  Wilkinson  with  his  present  employ- 
ment. Why  was  he  content  to  vegetate  in  such  a  wretched 
government  as  that  of  Louisiana  ?  Was  his  energy  gone  ? 
Was  his  activity  dead  ?  Should  a  great  enterprise,  leading  to 
fame  and  fortune,  be  undertaken,  would  he  join  it  ?  But  Wil- 
kinson would  not  respond,  and  Burr  was  forced  to  be  content, 
as  the  result  of  his  visit,  with  a  letter  to  William  Henry  Har- 
rison. Still  keeping  up  the  pretence  of  a  desire  for  public 
office  as  an  excuse  for  his  seemingly  aimless  wanderings  over 
the  West,  Burr  presented  the  letter,  for  it  asked  Harrison  to 
have  him  returned  as  Territorial  delegate  from  Indiana.  The 
thing  was  not  possible,  and  Burr  came  back  to  Philadelphia. 
There  he  learned  that  much  of  his  scheme  was  public  prop- 
erty. Toward  the  close  of  July  a  series  of  queries,  having  no 
signature,  appeared  in  the  columns  of  the  United  States  Ga- 
zette, a  Federal  newspaper  printed  at  Philadelphia.  How 
long,  it  was  asked,  how  long  will  it  be  before  we  shall  hear  of 
Colonel  Burr  at  the  head  of  a  revolutionary  party  on  the 
Western  waters  ?  Can  it  be  true  that  he  has  formed  a  plan  to 
entice  the  adventurous  youth  from  the  Atlantic  States  to  Louisi- 
ana ?  Is  one  inducement  the  immediate  call  of  a  convention 
of  delegates  from  the  States  bordering  on  the  Ohio  and  the 
Mississippi  to  form  a  separate  government  ?  Is  another  in- 
ducement the  assurance  that  all  the  Congress  lands,  save  such 
as  were  reserved  for  the  warlike  followers  of  Burr,  would  be 
seized  and  divided  among  those  States?  How  long  will  it 
be  before  all  the  forts,  all  the  magazines,  all  the  military  posts 
at  New  Orleans  and  on  the  Mississippi,  will  be  in  the  hands 
of  Burr  ?  How  soon  will  he  undertake  the  conquest  of  Mex- 
ico with  the  aid  of  British  ships  and  troops  ?  What  difficulty 
can  there  be  in  finishing  a  revolution  in  one  summer  when 
the  revolting  States  will  gain  all  the  Congress  lands,  will  get 


1805.  BURR  AND  ANTHONY  MERRY.  61 

rid  of  the  public  debt,  will  enjoy  their  own  commercial  reve- 
nues, and  share  with  England  the  plunder  of  Spain  ? 

A  few  days  later  the  Aurora  answered  these  queries; 
declared  that  none  of  the  things  there  hinted  at  could  ever 
take  place,  and  were  fit  only  to  be  attempted  by  a  man.  in  as 
desperate  straits  and  of  as  desperate  a  character  as  Aaron 
Burr.  To  Merry,  however,  the  questions  had  a  very  different 
meaning.  He  read  them  with  horror  and  at  once  wrote 
Lord  Mulgrave  that  Burr  had  been  babbling,  or  had  been  be- 
trayed, or  that  matters  had  gone  so  far  that  secrecy  could  not 
longer  be  maintained.*  When,  therefore,  four  months  later, 
Burr  reached  "Washington  and  hurried  to  the  British  Legation, 
he  found  the  Minister  quite  as  anxious  to  see  him  as  he  was  to 
see  Merry.  He  went  fully  expecting  that  some  answer  would 
by  that  time  have  come  from  London.  None  had,  and  for  this, 
in  the  long  interview  which  followed,  he  expressed  the  deepest 
disappointment  and  concern.  He  told  Merry  that  everything 
was  ready  for  the  execution  of  his  plan.  That,  relying  on  help 
from  England,  he  had  promised  his  friends  to  return  to  New 
Orleans  in  March ;  that  the  revolution  was  to  commence  at  the 
end  of  April  or  the  beginning  of  May,  provided  His  Majesty 
would  send  the  one  hundred  and  ten  thousand  pounds  and  two 
or  three  frigates,  two  or  three  ships  of  the  line,  and  a  fleet  of 
small  vessels  to  cruise  off  the  Mississippi  till  wanted,  f  All 
over  the  West,  he  declared,  men  of  influence  and  property 
were  ready  to  contribute.  At  New  Orleans  the  people  were  so 
impatient  of  American  rule  that  he  found  them  on  the  point 
of  sending  deputies  to  Paris  with  a  long  list  of  grievances. 
Could  he  but  obtain  the  needed  money  so  as  to  set  out  by 
the  beginning  of  March,  the  revolution  at  New  Orleans  could 
be  accomplished  without  shedding  a  drop  of  blood. 

Merry  could  give  him  no  hope,  and  a  few  days  later  he  re- 
turned to  Philadelphia.  Burr  must  now  have  been  at  his  wits' 
end,  for  no  sane  man  would  for  a  moment  have  thought  seri- 
ously of  the  plan  which  to  him  seemed  good,  and  to  which  for 
months  to  come  he  bent  all  his  energies.  Money,  it  was  clear, 

*  Merry  to  Mulgrave,  August  4,  1805.     Adams's  History  of  the  United  States, 
Tol.  iii,  p.  226. 

f  Merry  to  Mulgrave,  November  25,  1805. 


62      RESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xv. 

was  not  to  be  had  from  England  for  the  purpose  of  breaking 
up  the  Union  and  plundering  Spain.  He  had  the  front,  there- 
fore, to  seek  money  for  that  purpose  from  Spain  herself.  To 
make  the  request  in  person  would  never  do ;  so  he  chose  for 
his  agent  a  man  who  richly  deserves  to  bear  a  part,  and  a  large 
part,  of  the  infamy  with  which  this  conspiracy  has  loaded  the 
memory  of  Burr — Jonathan  Dayton — and  despatched  him  on 
an  errand  of  great  secrecy  to  the  Marquis  of  Casa  Yrujo.  Re- 
ceived by  the  Marquis,  he  at  once  assumed  the  part  of  traitor, 
and,  in  the  language  of  the  class  of  men  to  which  he  pretended 
to  belong,  began  to  "  peach."  He  assured  Yrujo  that  there 
was  in  existence  a  secret  for  which  Spain  would  do  well  to  pay 
forty  thousand  dollars.  This  secret  was  known  to  but  three 
men — Aaron  Burr,  the  English  Minister,  and  himself.  He 
then  went  on  to  narrate  just  enough  of  the  secret  to  enable 
Yrujo  to  see  all.  He  told  the  Minister  of  Burr's  conferences 
with  Merry ;  of  the  plan  to  split  the  Union,  to  form  a  new  re- 
public in  the  Mississippi  valley,  and  to  admit  the  Floridas ;  of 
the  application  to  England  for  help  ;  of  Burr's  journey  to  New 
Orleans;  of  the  new  plan  there  formed  for  an  expedition 
against  Mexico ;  and  of  the  warm  interest  taken  by  the  Eng- 
lish Cabinet  in  the  scheme.  But  Yrujo  was  not  deceived. 
He  well  knew  that  had  England  really  countenanced  the  plot, 
Dayton  would  not  be  there  to  tell  him ;  indeed,  in  later  inter- 
views Dayton  owned  this  to  be  so,  and  unfolded  a  second  plan 
wilder  than  the  first.  Armed  men  were  to  be  brought  to 
"Washington  one  by  one  till,  enough  being  there,  they  should, 
on  a  word  from  Burr,  seize  the  President,  the  Yice-President, 
and  the  President  pro  tempore  of  the  Senate,  seize  the  public 
money  in  the  banks,  seize  the  arsenal,  seize  the  navy  yard,  and, 
when  unable  longer  to  remain  in  Washington,  sail  in  the  cap- 
tured naval  vessels  for  New  Orleans.  Strange  as  it  may  seem, 
Yrujo  believed  this  plan  could  easily  be  carried  out.  If 
Yrujo  thought  so,  no  one  need  wonder  that  the  conspirators 
were  carried  away  by  it. 

Returning  to  Washington,  Burr  passed  the  whole  winter 
in  seeking  money  and  hunting  for  recruits.  Every  adventurer, 
every  man  of  means,  every  officer  with  a  grievance  who  drifted 
into  Washington,  was  sought  out,  sounded,  and,  if  he  seemed 


1806.  EURR  AT  CANNONSBFRG.  63 

to  respond,  informed  of  the  plot.  Then  was  it  that  he  tempted 
Commodore  Truxton.  Then  was  it  that  he  approached  Gen- 
eral Eaton  and  disclosed  to  him  the  whole  plan.  Then  was  it 
that  he  wrote  to  Blennerhasset  asking  aid.  By  Truxton  he 
was  coldly  repulsed.  By  Eaton  he  was  betrayed  to  Jef- 
ferson. 

While  he  thus  failed  to  gain  new  allies  he  began  to  lose 
old  ones.  In  June,  Anthony  Merry  was  informed  that  the 
King  had  been  pleased  to  grant  his  request  to  be  recalled,  and 
would  send  out  David  Montague  Erskine  in  his  stead.  The 
surprise  of  Merry  must  have  been  great,  for  he  had  not  asked 
to  be  recalled.  In  July,  Yrujo  was  flatly  told  that  the  King, 
his  master,  would  give  no  countenance  to  the  schemes  of  Burr. 
In  July,  Burr  despatched  that  lying  letter  to  Wilkinson,  which 
a  few  months  later  Wilkinson  used  to  establish  the  treasonable 
character  of  the  plot.  In  August,  confident  that  nothing  more 
could  be  done  at  Washington,  the  conspirators  set  off  for  the 
West  to  put  the  revolution  in  motion.  First  went  Peter  V. 
Ogden,  a  nephew  of  Dayton,  and  Samuel  Swartwout,  a  brother 
of  Robert  Swartwout,  charged  with  letters  to  Wilkinson  and 
John  Adair.  Next  went  Julius  Erich  Bollmann,  charged  with 
despatches  to  be  carried  to  New  Orleans  by  sea.  Then  went 
Burr,  and  with  him  his  daughter,  Theodosia  Alston,  and  a 
French  officer  named  De  Pestre. 

From  Pittsburg  Burr  turned  aside,  and  spent  a  night  at 
Cannon  sburg  with  Colonel  George  Morgan.  Conversation 
turning  on  the  Western  country,  Colonel  Morgan  remarked 
that  he  could  remember  the  time  when  there  was  not  a  family 
between  the  Alleghany  river  and  the  Ohio,  but  now  the  coun- 
try was  filling  up  so  fast  that  some  day  Congress  would  sit 
at  Pittsburg.  "  No,"  said  Burr,  "  never,  for  in  less  than  five 
years  you  will  be  totally  divided  from  the  Atlantic  States." 
He  then  went  on  to  give  reasons  why  this  would  happen,  and 
why  it  ought  to  happen ;  dwelt  on  the  tributary  condition  of 
the  West  to  the  East,  on  the  expenditure  in  the  East  of  the 
proceeds  of  land  sold  in  the  West,  on  the  high  taxes,  and  on 
the  weakness  and  imbecility  of  the  Federal  Government.  With 
two  hundred  men  he  could,  he  said,  drive  Congress  into  the 
Potomac,  with  the  President  at  its  head.  Before  leaving  on 


64:      RESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.   CHAP.  xv. 

the  morrow  he  had  a  long  talk  Math  one  of  the  sons,  and 
sought  to  persuade  the  lad  to  go  "West  with  him.  Alarmed  at 
his  language  and  actions,  Colonel  Morgan  repeated  what  had 
been  said  to  the  Judges  of  the  district.  All  agreed  to  send 
word  to  Jefferson,  and  did  so. 

From  Pittsburg  Burr  and  his  party  pushed  on  to  Blenner- 
hasset's  Island.  There  the  blandishments  of  Burr  and  the 
youth  and  beauty  of  Theodosia  completed  the  conquest  already 
half  begun,  and  made  the  Blennerhassets  the  most  devoted  of 
all  his  adherents.  In  his  moments  of  enthusiasm  the  excitable 
and  volatile  Irishman  saw  the  Federal  Government  fall  to 
pieces ;  saw  a  new  republic  spring  up  in  Louisiana,  with  Burr 
for  its  ruler,  with  England  for  its  protector,  with  "Wilkinson 
for  its  general,  with  himself  for  its  minister  to  England,  and 
Erich  Bollmann  his  secretary  of  legation.  He  saw  Wilkinson 
lead  a  splendid  army  into  Mexico.  He  saw  the  authority  of 
Spain  destroyed.  He  saw  a  new  throne  set  up,  and  on  that 
throne  the  house  of  Burr  firmly  established.  Such  visions 
turned  his  head.  His  wits  left  him,  and  his  lands,  his  for- 
tune, his  life,  everything  that  was  his,  was  laid  at  the  feet  of 
Burr.  He  gave  money,  he  bought  supplies,  he  built  boats,  he 
wrote  in  behalf  of  the  cause. 

On  July  fourth,  1806,  there  was  issued  at  the  town  of 
Frankfort,  Kentucky,  the  first  number  of  a  newspaper  named 
the  Western  World.  The  chief  owner  was  Joseph  Hamilton 
Daveiss,  the  United  States  District  Attorney.  The  chief  editor 
was  John  Wood,  the  hack  writer  and  newspaper  editor,  and 
the  chief  purpose  of  the  Western  World  was  to  drag  to  light 
the  men  who  had  been  concerned  with  Miro  in  the  Span- 
ish conspiracy  of  1787.  The  journey  of  Burr  through  the 
Western  country  in  the  summer  of  1805  ;  his  trip  to  New  Or- 
leans ;  the  discontent  of  the  Creoles ;  the  lingering  of  the  Span- 
ish officials  in  Louisiana ;  the  visits  of  Burr  to  Wilkinson,  con- 
vinced Daveiss  that  the  old  plot  to  separate  the  West  and  put 
it  under  the  protection  of  Spain  was  still  being  cherished. 
Thinking  so,  and  seeing  in  its  exposure  a  fine  chance  to  de- 
stroy his  political  enemies,  he  wrote  to  Jefferson  in  January, 
1806,  gave  a  long  account  of  the  old  plot,  declared  it  was 
not  abandoned,  and  accused  Wilkinson  of  being  in  Spanish 


1806.  BURR  IN  THE  OHIO  VALLEY.  65 

pay.*  Yet  another  month  and  he  wrote  again,  this  time  accus- 
ing both  Wilkinson  and  Burr.f  Jefferson  bade  him  tell  all  he 
knew,  $  and  letter  followed  letter  till,  wearied  with  the  apathy 
of  the  President,  Daveiss  took  matters  into  his  own  hands, 
founded  the  newspaper,  and  began  an  open  attack  on  the  con- 
spirators. His  aim  was  to  show  that  the  Kentucky  Spanish 
association  of  1787,  the  conspiracy  of  Senator  Blount,  the 
expedition  of  Miranda,  and  the  scheme  then  brewing  in  the 
West,  were  all  but  so  many  different  forms  of  the  old  plot. 
These  charges,  and  the  letters  and  documents  with  which  they 
were  supported,  had  made  no  little  stir  in  the  valley,  when 
Blennerhasset  undertook  to  answer  them.  Over  the  signature 
of  "  Querist "  he  now  published  a  series  of  essays  in  the  Ohio 
Gazette  to  prove  that  the  scheme  denounced  so  bitterly  by  the 
Western  World  was  not  so  bad  after  all;  that  there  were 
several  reasons  why  the  West  should  part  company  with  the 
East,  and  why  Ohio  in  particular  would  be  a  gainer.  Th6  first 
of  the  series  was  published  on  the  fourth  of  September. 

On  that  day  Burr  was  at  Cincinnati.  A  week  later  he 
crossed  the  Ohio  to  Lexington  and  hurried  to  Nashville,  was 
given  a  public  dinner,  enlisted  Andrew  Jackson  in  his  cause, 
and  on  the  first  of  October  was  back  again  at  Lexington. 
Never  had  his  prospects  seemed  brighter,  never  had  suc- 
cess seemed  so  near.  Both  up  and  down  the  valley  all  was 
activity  in  his  behalf.  Fifteen  boats  were  building  at  Mari- 
etta ;  six  others  were  soon  to  be  begun  on  the  Cumberland. 
Men  were  enlisting ;  provisions  were .  being  gathered,  and,  to 
keep  up  the  appearance  of  a  great  land  company,  the  purchase 
was  made  of  the  Bastrop  Grant  on  the  river  Washita.*  Into 

*  Daveiss  to  Jefferson,  January  10,  1806.     Clark's  Proofs  of  the  Corruption 
of  General  James  Wilkinson,  pp.  177-184. 

f  Daveiss  to  Jefferson,  February  10,  1806.     Idem. 
J  Jefferson  to  Daveiss,  February  15,  1806.     Idem. 

*  This  famous  claim  was  for  land  on  the  river  Washita,  in  the  Territory  of 
Orleans.     It  was  really  a  contract  between  the  Spanish  Governor  of  Louisiana 
and  Baron  Bastrop,  by  which  the  latter  bound  himself  to  settle  five  hundred 
families  on  a  tract  thirty  miles  square  in  1797.     The  Spanish  Governor  was  to 
supply  the  settlers  with  food  for  six  months.     Governor  Carondelet  was  unable 
to  fulfil  his  part  of  the  contract,  and  released  Bastrop  from  the  requirement 
regarding  the  families.     Claiming  that  this  did  not  impair  the  title,  Bastrop  sold 

VOL.    III. — 6 


66      RESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xv. 

his  plot  had  been  drawn  men  of  every  rank  and  of  every  de- 
scription from  New  Orleans  to  New  York — Senators  and  ex- 
Senators,  judges,  soldiers,  men  of  education,  men  of  wealth, 
young  men,  boatmen,  field-hands,  laborers.  To  each,  with  in- 
finite skill,  had  been  presented  that  allurement  he  was  least 
able  to  resist.  For  the  ambitious  there  were  titles,  honors, 
military  rank ;  for  the  avaricious,  prospects  of  boundless 
wealth ;  for  the  poor  and  ignorant,  acres  of  land. 

Flourishing  as  his  cause  seemed,  it  was  in  reality  already 
doomed.  The  essays  of  "Querist";  the  return  of  Burr;  the 
company  he  kept;  the  boats,  clearly  for  military  purposes, 
building  at  Marietta ;  the  babble  of  Blennerhasset,  made 
Daveiss  more  positive  than  ever  that  the  old  plot  was  about 
to  be  executed.  Without  delay  he  openly  accused  Burr  of 
being  at  the  head  of  a  conspiracy  to  deliver  over  the  West- 
ern territory  to  England  and  Spain,  and  asserted  that  two 
hundred  thousand  dollars  had  been  drawn  from  Lexington, 
from  Bardstown,  and  from  Louisville  to  further  the  scheme. 
The  whole  valley  was  by  this  time  greatly  excited.  One  news- 
paper remarked  that  the  doors  of  this  infamous  conspiracy 
would  soon  fly  open,  and  that  then  people  would  believe  what 
had  so  often  been  foretold  them.*  Another  ventured  the  opin- 
ion that  Burr  was  attempting  to  form  a  third  party  in  Ken- 
tucky, f  A  third  asserted  that  the  men  of  Wood  County,  Vir- 
ginia, had  met  to  consider  the  best  way  to  defeat  the  disorgan- 
izing views  of  Burr,  had  formed  a  volunteer  company,  and  sent 
an  address  to  Jefferson.  \  A  fourth  declared  a  rumor  was 
afloat  that  the  President  had  issued  an  order  to  arrest  Burr  on 
a  charge  of  treason.*  He  had,  in  fact,  done  nothing  of  the 
kind.  Concerning  the  conduct  of  Burr,  information  had  come 
to  Jefferson  from  many  sources,  but  it  was  not  till  late  in 
October  that  he  thought  it  necessary  to  lay  that  information 
before  the  Secretaries.  When  he  did,  they  with  difficulty 
made  up  their  minds  what  to  do.  One  day  it  was  resolved  to 
bid  the  Governors  of  Ohio  and  Indiana,  Mississippi  and  Or- 

to  various  persons,  who  sold  in  turn  to  a  Charles  Lynch,  who  sold  to  Burr.  The 
area  sold  by  Lynch  was  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  acres. 

*  Scioto  Gazette.  \  Gazette  of  the  United  States. 

f  Aurora.  *  Alexandria  Expositor. 


1806.  DAVEISS  ACCUSES  BURR.  67 

leans,  and  the  district  attorneys  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee, 
watch  Burr  closely,  and,  on  the  first  overt  act,  arrest  and  try 
him  for  treason.*  Two  days  later  it  was  determined  to  send 
Preble  and  Decatur  to  New  Orleans  to  take  command  of  a 
fleet  of  gunrboats,  and  to  send  John  Graham,  Secretary  of  the 
Orleans  Territory,  through  Kentucky  to  find  out  what  Burr 
was  doing,  f  Next  day,  however,  the  Secretaries  again  changed 
their  minds.  Letters  were  not  to  be  written  to  the  Governors. 
Preble  and  Decatur  were  not  to  be  despatched  to  New  Or- 
leans, but  John  Graham  was,  as  he  went  southward,  to  notify 
the  Governors  verbally,  and  make  inquiries  into  the  move- 
ments of  Burr4 

Thus  instructed,  Graham  hurried  westward,  but  hardly  had 
he  entered  Ohio  when  he  heard  that  the  District  Attorney  in 
Kentucky  had  begun  to  act.  The  step  was  a  bold  one.  For, 
though  letter  after  letter  had  been  sent  to  Jefferson,  giving 
names,  citing  evidence,  assuring  him  most  positively  that  a 
plot  was  on  foot,  the  President  had  taken  no  notice  of  them 
whatever.  Not  a  word  in  answer,  not  so  much  as  a  line  in 
acknowledgment  of  the  receipt  of  the  letters,  had  come  from 
"Washington.  To  one  so  convinced  of  the  existence  of  a  con- 
spiracy as  Daveiss,  such  conduct  seemed  to  make  Jefferson  a 
party.  Yet  he  did  not  hesitate  on  the  very  first  opportunity 
to  take  that  vigorous  course  for  which,  in  time,  Jefferson  de- 
nounced and  then  removed  him  from  office.  The  opportunity 
came  on  November  third,  when  the  United  States  District 
Court  opened  its  session  at  Frankfort.  On  the  fifth  Daveiss 
rose  in  Court,  made  an  affidavit  that  he  was  in  possession  of 
evidence  to  show  that  Burr  had  formed  an  association  for 
waging  war  against  Spain,  invading  Mexico,  and  breaking  up 
the  Union ;  was  raising  forces  and  buying  supplies,  and  moved 
that  a  process  for  his  arrest  be  issued.*  On  the  bench  sat 
Harry  Innis,  who  had  long  been  a  pensioner  of  Spain,  had  been 
as  deep  as  Wilkinson  in  the  Spanish  plot,  and  had  been  charged 
with  conspiracy  by  the  "Western  World.  As  to  what  must  be 

*  Cabinet  Memoranda,  October  22,  1806. 
f  Cabinet  Memoranda,  October  25,  1806. 
I  Cabinet  Memoranda,  October  25,  1806. 

*  The  affidavit  is  printed  in  full  in  the  Aurora,  December  1,  1806. 


68      RESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xv. 

done  he  was  not  for  a  moment  in  doubt ;  but  he  took  three 
days  for  pretended  deliberation,  and  then  denied  the  motion, 
and  gave  two  reasons.  The  Court,  he  declared,  had  not  the 
power  to  do  what  Daveiss  asked,  and  if  it  had,  the  evidence 
before  it  was  not  enough  to  justify  the  exercise  of  such  power.* 
Daveiss  therefore  moved  for  a  warrant  to  summon  a  Grand 
Jury,  before  whom  he  would  present  the  accused.  Burr,  who 
was  in  the  Court,  now  came  forward  and  demanded  inquiry. 
The  warrant  was  then  issued,  a  Grand  Jury  at  once  empan- 
elled from  the  men  that  filled  the  court-room,  sworn  that 
same  afternoon,  and  their  sitting  immediately  adjourned  till 
November  twelfth,  the  day  fixed  for  the  examination. 

News  of  these  proceedings  spread  far  and  wide,  and  on 
the  day  appointed  the  town  of  Frankfort  swarmed  with  an 
eager  and  impatient  crowd  gathered  from  twenty  miles  around. 
They  filled  the  court-room ;  they  stood  in  a  dense  mass  about 
the  door  and  so  blocked  every  avenue  of  approach  that  it  was 
with  great  difficulty  that  the  jury  could  get  within  the  build- 
ing. When  the  judge  was  seated  and  the  Court  opened,  the 
names  of  the  jurymen  were  called.  One  did  not  answer. 
Daveiss  not  being  in  court,  the  judge  sent  off  a  messenger  to 
tell  him  that  the  jury  was  incomplete.  Entering  a  few  min- 
utes later,  he  informed  Judge  Innis  that  it  did  not  matter,  as 
his  chief  witness  was  in  Indiana,  and,  to  the  astonishment  of 
all,  moved  for  the  discharge  of  the  jury.  In  an  instant  roars 
of  laughter,  mingled  with  shouts  of  derision,  rose  from  the 
crowd,  for  judge,  jury,  and  spectators  were  all  for  Aaron  Burr. 
In  the  midst  of  the  uproar  Burr,  with  Henry  Clay  for  coun- 
sel, entered  the  Court,  where,  during  the  silence  which  fol- 
lowed his  entrance,  he  delivered  one  of  those  dignified  and 
quiet  addresses  he  so  well  knew  how  and  when  to  make ;  and 
then  left  the  room  in  triumph. f 

This  was  what  Graham  heard  when,  toward  the  middle  of 
November,  he  came  down  the  Ohio  to  Marietta.  There  he 
tarried  a  few  days  gathering  evidence,  and  then  passed  on  to 
Chillicothe,  where,  the  Legislature  being  in  session,  he  secured 
the  passage  of  a  law  authorizing  the  Governor  to  use  the 

*  Aurora,  December  1,  1806.  f  Ohio  Gazette,  November  27,  1806. 


1806.  THE  FRANKFORT  HEARING.  69 

militia.*  The  law  was  to  run  for  one  year,  and  under  it  prepa- 
rations were  instantly  made  to  seize  the  boats  at  Marietta.  It 
was  now  the  sixth  of  December.  The  second  was  a  date 
memorable  in  the  life  of  Burr,  for  it  was  on  that  day  that  he 
again  appeared  before  the  District  Court  at  Frankfort  to  de- 
fend his  injured  honor ;  and  it  was  on  that  day  that  the  people 
of  the  Eastern  cities  read  for  the  first  time  the  proclamation 
of  the  President  announcing  the  conspiracy,  and  the  full  and 
careful  statement  of  Eaton  describing  the  treason,  f 

On  the  twenty-fifth  of  November  Daveiss  renewed  his 
motion  in  the  District  Court,  and  the  second  of  December 
was  fixed  for  the  hearing.  A  second  time  the  Grand  Jury  was 
empanelled ;  a  second  time  Burr  and  Clay  appeared ;  a  second 
time  the  witnesses  fled;  a  second  time  judge  and  jury  and 
spectators  were  for  the  culprit ;  and  a  second  time  he  was  ac- 
quitted with  shouts  of  joy.  He  was  more  than  acquitted. 
He  was  the  hero  of  the  hour.  The  jury  signed  a  paper  setting 
forth  that,  in  their  opinion,  Aaron  Burr  had  done  nothing  in- 
jurious to  the  welfare  of  the  United  States.  The  people  of 
Frankfort  gave  him  a  fine  ball.  But  his  triumph  was  soon 
over.  The  jury  might  fail  to  see  any  evidence  of  guilt ;  but 
the  President  was  in  possession  of  much.  From  the  tenth  of 
January,  when  Daveiss  wrote  his  first  letter  to  Jefferson,  hardly 
a  month  went  by  without  bringing  overwhelming  testimony 
from  some  new  source.  From  William  Eaton,  from  the  Post- 
master-General Gideon  Granger,  from  John  Nicholson,  from 
George  Morgan,  from  General  Neville,  from  the  judges  of 
the  district  in  which  Cannonsburg  lay,  came  warnings  which 
ought  not  to  have  been  disregarded.  But  the  evidence  which 
weighed  most  with  Jefferson,  the  evidence  which  at  last  roused 
that  sluggish  nature  to  feeble  action,  came  from  the  American 
camp  at  Natchitoches. 

Crossing  the  Alleghanies  in  August,  Ogden  and  Swartwout 
went  westward  as  speedily  as  possible.  They  had  expected  to 
meet  "Wilkinson  at  St.  Louis ;  but,  hearing  at  Kaskaskia  that 
he  had  gone  south,  they  followed  him  down  the  Mississippi  to 
Fort  Adams,  where  they  were  told  that  he  had  gone  into  the 

*  Laws  of  Ohio,  Chap,  iii,  December  6,  1S06.         f  Aurora,  December  2,  1806. 


70     RESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xv. 

Red  river  country.  Thither  Swartwout  went  in  search  of 
him,  while  Ogden  pressed  on  to  New  Orleans.  On  the  even- 
ing of  October  eighth  Swartwout  reached  Natchitoches  and 
delivered  to  Wilkinson  in  person  Burr's  lying  letter  of  July 
twenty-ninth.  The  letter  told  him  that  all  was  in  readiness ; 
that  troops  had  been  enlisted  ;  that  England  would  furnish 
the  naval  force,  and  that  Truxton  was  going  to  Jamaica  to 
arrange  with  the  British  admiral  at  that  station  ;  that  about 
November  fifteenth  five  hundred  men  would  start  from  the 
Falls  of  Ohio,  and  by  December  fifth  reach  Natchez ;  and 
bade  Wilkinson  be  there. 

Having  passed  the  night  in  deciphering  the  letter  and  re- 
flecting on  it,  Wilkinson  in  the  morning  again  took  that 
dark  and  crooked  course  he  so  well  loved.  Drawing  aside 
the  colonel  who  commanded  the  troops,  he  read  the  letter, 
and  declared  he  would  send  word  of  the  plot  to  Jefferson 
and  move  the  soldiers  to  New  Orleans.  Yet  he  did  not  write 
for  twelve  days.  He  well  knew  that  the  purpose  of  the  ex- 
pedition was  to  secure  the  independence  of  Orleans,  and  that 
Burr  was  in  command.  Yet  in  the  letter  he  assured  Jeffer- 
son that  the  expedition  was  against  Yera  Cruz,  that  he  did  not 
know  who  were  the  leaders,  nor  what  were  their  intentions 
regarding  Orleans.*  He  knew  that  the  expedition  was  planned 
to  leave  Kentucky  on  November  fifteenth.  Yet  he  sent  no 
word  to  Fort  Adams,  nor  to  Chickasaw  Bluffs,  nor  to  Fort 
Massac,  nor  to  the  authorities  of  Kentucky  or  Tennessee. 

On  the  twenty-fifth  of  November  an  officer  bearing  these 
despatches  presented  himself  at  the  White  House  and  deliv- 
ered them  to  Jefferson.  He  had  come  from  the  Red  river 
country ;  but  such  had  been  his  haste  that  not  quite  thirty- 
five  days  had  been  passed  on  the  journey.  Without  a  mo- 
ment's delay  the  Secretaries  were  summoned,  a  council  held, 
and  the  course  to  be  taken  decided.  Orders  were  to  be  sent 
to  the  commanding  officers  at  Pittsburg,  at  Fort  Massac,  at 
Chickasaw  Bluffs,  and  to  Wilkinson,  to  stop  every  boat  and 

*  "  It  is  unknown  under  what  authority  this  enterprise  has  been  projected, 
from  whence  the  means  of  its  support  are  derived,  or  what  may  be  the  intentions 
of  its  leaders  in  relation  to  the  Territory  of  Orleans." — Wilkinson  to  Jefferson, 
October  21,  1806.  Wilkinson's  Memoirs,  vol.  iS,  Appendix  xcv. 


1806.  BURR  AND  YRUJO.  71 

arrest  every  man  believed  to  be  concerned  in  the  schemes  of 
Burr,  whether  they  contemplated  an  attack  on  New  Orleans 
or  an  attack  on  the  dominion  of  Spain.  A  proclamation  was 
to  be  issued  and  a  call  for  help  to  be  made  on  the  Governors 
of  Ohio  and  Kentucky  and  on  Andrew  Jackson,  of  Tennessee. 
The  proclamation  is  dated  November  twenty-seventh.  No 
mention  is  made  in  it  of  the  name  of  Burr.  Certain  persons 
are  declared  to  be  conspiring  against  Spain ;  such  conspiracy  is 
pronounced  illegal,  and  all  civil  and  military  officers  are  bidden 
to  seize  and  hold  persons  and  property  concerned  in  it. 

While  Jefferson  was  signing  his  proclamation  at  Washing- 
ton, De  Pestre  rode  into  Philadelphia  with  letters  and  mes- 
sages to  Yrujo  and  to  the  conspirators  at  New  York.  But 
Yrujo  needed  little  information.  He  knew  all.  Two  weeks 
before  De  Pestre  knocked  at  his  door,  he  wrote  to  Cevallos  a 
long  account  of  the  plans  of  Burr.  Five  hundred  men,  he 
declared,  were  gathering  on  the  Ohio.  Under  the  pretext  of 
settling  on  a  great  land-purchase  lately  made,  Burr  would  lead 
them  down  the  Mississippi.  Reaching  Cincinnati,  they  would, 
seize  the  arms  deposited  there  by  Government.  At  Natchez 
they  would  again  stop  till  the  Assembly  of  Orleans  had  met, 
declared  independence,  and  invited  Burr  to  rule.*  To  this 
knowledge  De  Pestre  added  littlfi ;  but  that  little  was  most 
valuable.  To  the  rumors  of  an  attack  on  Mexico,  Yrujo  was 
to  give  no  heed.  They  were  set  afloat  to  explain  the  arming 
and  the  enlisting,  which  could  no  longer  be  kept  secret.  The 
real  purpose  of  Burr  was  the  liberation  of  the  Western  States. 
For  such  liberation,  Louisiana,  Orleans,  Tennessee,  and  Ohio 
were  ready.  Kentucky  was  not.  All  must  be  arranged  to 
coerce  her  if,  when  the  time  came,  she  attempted  to  resist. 
Would  not  Yrujo  see  to  it  that,  when  the  revolution  began, 
the  Governor  of  West  Florida  stopped  the  couriers  the  friends 
of  Government  would  send  with  the  news  to  Washington  ? 
Instead  of  doing  so,  Yrujo  warned  the  Governors  of  West 
Florida  and  Baton  Rouge  not  to  trust  Wilkinson.  "  He  has," 
said  the  Marquis,  "  acted  in  good  faith  hitherto,  but  his  fidelity 

*  Yrujo  to  Cevallos,  November  10,   1806.     Manuscript,  Spanish  Archives. 
Adams's  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  iii,  pp.  261,  262. 


72      RESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xv. 

cannot  be  depended  on  if  he  has  a  greater  interest  in  violat- 
ing it." 

At  New  York  Dupiester  made  a  short  stay,  and  soon  came 
back  to  Yrujo  with  a  singular  tale.  The  leaders  and  com- 
manders, he  said,  had  been  ordered  to  their  posts — some  to 
New  Orleans ;  some  to  Washington,  to  watch  the  Government 
and  keep  Burr  informed  of  what  it  did  ;  some  to  Norfolk,  to 
gather  provisions ;  and  some  to  Charleston,  to  take  command 
of  the  troops  supposed  to  be  raised  by  Alston,  in  South  Caro- 
lina. That  Yrujo  believed  these  men  would  start  for  their 
posts  is  far  from  likely,  for  the  Government  had  already 
begun  to  act,  the  proclamation  denouncing  the  conspiracy  was 
almost  three  weeks  old,  and  the  whole  plot  was  doomed  to  fail- 
ure. In  Ohio  the  Governor  called  out  the  militia,  and  seized 
most  of  the  boats  building  at  Marietta.  In  the  "West  Blenner- 
hasset  with  the  conspirators,  some  thirty  in  number,  and  the 
supplies,  fled  down  the  Ohio  on  the  night  of  December  tenth 
and  escaped. 

Burr  meanwhile  was  on  his  way  to  Nashville.  Reaching 
there  December  fourteenth,  he  was  asked  by  Jackson  to  ex- 
plain his  conduct,  and  solemnly  denied  any  desire  to  break  up 
the  Union.  The  boat-building,  therefore,  was  suffered  to  go 
on  unmolested.  On  the  nineteenth  the  proclamation  arrived. 
Yet  even  then  no  attempt  was  made  to  seize  Burr.  Such  im- 
punity, however,  could  not  last.  A  hint  was  accordingly  sent 
to  him  by  the  authorities  at  Nashville  that  he  would  do  well 
to  flee ;  and  on  the  twenty-second,  abandoning  all  his  boats 
but  two,  he  bade  farewell  to  Jackson,  whose  duty  it  was  to 
have  seized  him,  received  from  the  General  the  value  of  the 
boats  and  supplies  he  left  behind,  and  began  his  journey  down 
the  Cumberland.  With  him  went  a  nephew  of  Mrs.  Jackson. 
At  the  mouth  of  the  Cumberland  they  met  Blennerhasset, 
and  the  two  parties,  numbering  a  hundred  men,  in  thirteen 
boats,  floated  on  with  the  current  of  the  Ohio  past  Fort 
Massac.  The  fort  stood  on  the  Illinois  side  of  the  river,  was 
garrisoned  by  the  First  Infantry,  and  commanded  by  Captain 
Bissell.  To  him  on  the  twenty-seventh  of  November  had 
been  sent  a  copy  of  the  proclamation  and  specific  orders  what 
to  do.  Yet,  when  the  flotilla  slipped  by  the  place  on  the^jiight 


1807.  BURR  REACHES  BAYOU  PIERRE.  73 

of  December  twenty-ninth,  neither  the  proclamation  nor  an 
order  had  been  received.  Pulling  ashore  a  mile  before  the 
fort,  Burr  spent  the  next  day  in  the  neighborhood,  visited 
Captain  Bissell,  obtained  a  furlough  for  a  sergeant  he  had 
persuaded  to  join  his  force,  and  on  the  last  day  of  the  year 
again  started  for  New  Orleans,  and  January  tenth  reached  a 
place  called  Bayou  Pierre,  some  thirty  miles  above  Natchez. 
While  the  boats  made  fast  to  the  bank,  Burr  landed  and  went 
to  the  plantation  of  a  man  named  Peter  B.  Bruin,  one  of  the 
district  judges  of  the  Territory  of  Mississippi.  Asking  for 
news,  he  was  given  a  copy  of  the  Moniteur  containing  his 
letter  to  "Wilkinson. 

The  letters  despatched  to  Jefferson,  Wilkinson  next  sent 
word  to  the  commanding  officer  at  New  Orleans,*  hurried  to 
the  Sabine,  spent  ten  days  on  the  frontier,  and  came  back  to 
Natchitoches,  where  a  packet  reached  him  from  Erich  Boll- 
mann,  then  at  New  Orleans.  Enclosed  in  it  was  a  copy  of 
Burr's  letter  of  July  and  a  note  from  Dayton.  Hardly  had 
these  come  to  hand  when  a  letter  from  Natchez  informed 
him  that  reports  from  St.  Louis  announced  that  a  plot  existed 
for  the  separation  of  the  Western  country,  that  the  revolution 
was  soon  to  begin,  and  that  on  the  fifteenth  of  November, 
Ohio,  Indiana,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  the  Territory  of  Or- 
leans were  to  publish  a  declaration  of  independence.  And 
now  for  the  first  time  Wilkinson  seemed  truly  alarmed  and  in 
earnest.  He  wrote  to  Colonel  Gushing,  then  on  the  Sabine, 
to  hurry  to  New  Orleans.f  He  went  at  once  to  Natchez,  and 
from  Natchez  sent  out  new  alarms  to  Jefferson,:}:  to  Clai- 
borne,*  and  to  the  commander  at  New  Orleans,  and  Novem- 
ber twenty-fifth  entered  that  city  himself.  There  he  spread 
terror  on  every  hand.  The  militia  were  placed  under  his 
orders.  The  Legislature  was  summoned  to  a  special  session. 
The  merchants  were  gathered  and  told  of  the  plans  of  Burr. 

*  Wilkinson  to  Lieutenant-Colonel  Freeman,  October  23,  1806.     Wilkinson's 
Memoirs,  vol.  U,  Appendix  ci. 

f  Wilkinson  to  Colonel  Gushing,  November  7,  1806.     Memoirs,  vol.  ii,  Appen- 
dix xcix. 

t  Wilkinson  to  Jefferson,  November  12,  1805.     Memoirs,  vol.  ii,  Appendix  c. 

*  Wilkinson  to  Claiborne,  November  12,  1806.     Memoirs,  vol.  ii,  p.  328. 


74     RESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xv. 

A  temporary  embargo  was  laid  that  sailors  might  be  had  to 
put  gun-boats  and  ketches  in  fighting  trim.  Many  of  the 
merchant  vessels  were  armed  and  manned,  and  on  Sunday, 
December  fourteenth,  arrests  began.  Bolhnann  was  seized  in 
New  Orleans,  Swartwout  and  Ogden  at  Fort  Adams,  and  all 
three  hurried  on  board  the  bomb-ketch  ^Etna,  then  lying  at 
anchor  off  the  city.  The  arrest  was  wholly  illegal ;  but  the 
attempt  now  made  to  hold  the  prisoners  was  a  flat  defiance 
of  their  rights  and  of  law.  The  Superior  Court  of  Orleans 
issued  writs  of  habeas  corpus.  But  so  completely  was  the 
city  in  the  hands  of  Wilkinson  that  a  day  was  wasted  before 
the  officer  bearing  the  writs  could  find  a  boatman  to  row  him 
out  to  the  bomb-ketch.  When  he  did  reach  the  JEtna,  Ogden 
alone  was  there.  Swartwout  and  Bollmann  had  been  carried 
off  to  merchant-vessels  and  were  at  once  sent  north  by  sea. 
Ogden  was  given  up,  and  a  shameful  contest  for  his  possession 
began.  The  Court  set  him  free.  Wilkinson  seized  him  a 
second  time.  The  Court  again  issued  a  habeas  corpus.  Wil- 
kinson defied  it  and  held  the  prisoner.  The  Court  attached 
Wilkinson  for  contempt.  The  General  defied  the  attachment. 
The  Judge  called  on  the  Governor  for  help ;  the  Governor 
dared  not  give  it,  and  the  Judge,  declaring  that  the  judicial 
power  had  been  laid  low  by  the  military  power,  resigned,  and 
Wilkinson  ruled  Orleans. 

To  justify  the  arrest  of  Bollmann,  Wilkinson  charged  him 
with  treason,  and  swore  to  an  affidavit,  containing  a  copy  of 
Burr's  letter  of  July  twenty-ninth.  From  the  Court  the  letter 
went  to  the  newspapers.  By  the  newspapers  it  was  spread  all 
over  the  Territory,  and  in  the  columns  of  one  of  them  was 
read  with  horror  and  dismay  by  Burr.  Betrayed,  disheart- 
ened, alarmed  for  his  own  safety  and  the  safety  of  his  men, 
he  hastened  back  to  the  boats,  drew  them  to  the  west  bank 
of  the  river,  where,  out  of  the  jurisdiction  of  Mississippi,  he 
made  a  camp,  posted  sentinels,  and  drilled  the  men.  While 
thus  engaged,  Cowles  Mead,  Secretary  and  Acting  Governor 
of  Mississippi,  began  to  assemble  the  militia  at  Coles  Creek, 
a  few  miles  below  Bayou  Pierre,  and  sent  several  officers 
across  the  river  to  urge  Burr  to  surrender.  In  this  they  suc- 
ceeded, and  on  January  seventeenth  Burr  met  Mead  and  sur- 


1807.  ARREST  OF  BURR.  75 

rendered.  He  was  at  once  taken  to  "Washington,  the  capital 
of  the  Territory,  and  brought  before  Judge  Rodney.  The  At- 
torney-General, George  Poindexter,  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that 
the  prisoner  could  not  be  held.  There  was,  in  the  first  place, 
he  said,  no  evidence  that  Burr  had  committed  any  offence 
within  the  boundaries  of  Mississippi.  The  Supreme  Terri- 
torial Court,  in  the  next  place,  before  which  Burr  must  be 
brought,  was  a  court  of  appeals,  and  could  not  have  original 
jurisdiction.  He  asked,  therefore,  that  Burr  be  sent  before 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  that  the  place  of 
trial  might  be  determined.  Rodney  thought  otherwise,  and 
released  Burr  on  bail,  to  appear  from  day  to  day  till  the 
adjourned  meeting  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Territory. 
Again  good  fortune  attended  him.  Poindexter  made  the  old 
argument ;  but  the  judges  were  divided,  the  motion  was  lost, 
while  the  Grand  Jury  not  only  threw  out  the  bill,  but  re- 
turned the  arrest,  the  manner  of  the  arrest,  and  the  conduct 
of  the  Acting  Governor,  as  grievances. 

It  was  now  Tuesday  afternoon.  On  Wednesday  even- 
ing, February  fourth,  the  Grand  Jury  was  discharged.  Burr 
thereupon  demanded  a  release  from  his  recognizance.*  This 
was  refused,  and,  alarmed  for  his  safety,  he  hastened  to  the 
house  of  one  of  his  sureties,  and  from  there  fled  to  the  woods. 
From  his  hiding-place  he  wrote  to  Robert  Williams,  Governor 
of  the  Territory.  The  vindictive  temper  and  unprincipled 
conduct  of  Judge  Rodney  had  forced  him,  he  wrote,  to  with- 
draw from  public  view.  He  was  .still  ready,  as  he  had  ever 
been,  to  submit  to  civil  authority ;  but,  before  he  again  sur- 
rendered, he  must  know  of  what  he  stood  charged,  what  se- 
curity would  be  required,  and  must  be  assured  that  he  would 
not  be  sent  from  the  Territory,  f 

The  note  was  long  in  reaching  Mead,  who  in  the  mean 
time  put  forth  a  proclamation  offering  two  thousand  dollars 
for  the  arrest  of  Burr4  The  moment  he  beheld  this  he  once 
more  wrote  to  the  Governor,  denied  that  he  had  fled  his  bail, 

*  Trial  of  Aaron  Burr,  Carpenter's  edition  of  1808,  vol.  iii,  Appendix,  p.  4. 

f  Ibid.,  Appendix,  p.  6. 

t  February  6,  1807.     Ibid.,  Appendix,  p.  5. 


76     KESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xv. 

and  asserted  that  lie  was  bound  to  appear  if  an  indictment 
was  found,  and  not  otherwise.*  The  date  of  this  letter  is 
February  twelfth ;  the  answer  of  the  Governor  is  dated  Feb- 
ruary thirteenth.  The  hiding-place  of  Burr  could  not,  there- 
fore, have  been  far  from  the  town  of  Washington.  "Wherever 
it  was,  he  soon  left  it,  and,  disguised  as  a  Mississippi  boatman, 
fled  across  the  Territory  toward  the  Spanish  frontier.  Late 
in  the  night  of  February  eighteenth  he  stopped  at  a  log  tav- 
ern in  the  town  of  Wakefield,  Alabama,  was  recognized  by  the 
register  of  public  lands,  and  the  next  morning  was  arrested  by 
Lieutenant  Gaines,  from  Fort  Stoddart.  At  the  fort  he  was 
detained  three  weeks,  and  then  sent  on  to  Richmond,  Virginia, 
where,  on  March  thirtieth,  in  a  room  in  the  Eagle  Tavern,  he 
was  brought  before  John  Marshall  for  examination  and  com- 
mitment. That  dread  of  being  sent  north,  which  so  dis- 
turbed him  in  Mississippi,  had  now  left  him.  His  situation 
had  changed  greatly.  In  Mississippi  he  was  the  proscribed 
and  hunted  outlaw ;  at  Richmond  he  was  the  hero  of  the 
hour.  In  the  South  his  friends  and  fellow-conspirators  had 
been  seized,  their  legal  rights  set  at  nought,  the  courts  defied, 
and  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  violently  suspended.  In  the 
North  these  friends  had  been  set  at  liberty,  their  treatment 
denounced,  and  the  request  of  the  President  that  the  acts  of 
Wilkinson  be  made  legal  refused  by  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives. 

The  proclamation  had  issued  on  the  twenty-seventh  of 
November  ;  on  December  first  the  eighth  Congress  assembled, 
and  on  December  second  the  annual  message  was  read.  In 
that  message  Jefferson  affected  to  treat  the  conspiracy  as  most 
trivial.  He  had  been  informed,  he  said,  that  a  great  number 
of  private  persons  were  combining,  arming,  organizing  for  an 
expedition  against  the  territories  of  Spain.  This  was  illegal. 
He  had  therefore'  so  proclaimed  it,  and  had  ordered  the  boats 
and  arms  to  be  seized  and  the  men  engaged  arrested.  So 
much  was  due  to  good  faith  and  good  order.  Thus  dismissed 
in  a  few  words,  Congress  heard  no  more  of  the  matter  for  six 
weeks.  Then  John  Randolph,  weary  with  waiting  and  goaded 

*  Trial  of  Aaron  Burr,  Carpenter's  edition  of  1808,  vol.  iii,  Appendix,  p.  6. 


1807.  JEFFERSON'S  MESSAGE.  Y7 

on  by  the  demands  of  the  press  for  action,  rose  in  his  place 
and  moved  a  call  for  information.  The  motion  was  carried, 
and  six  days  later  a  long  message  came  down  to  the  House  in 
reply.  Ignoring  the  letters  of  Daveiss,  in  January  and  Feb- 
ruary, and  the  warning  of  Eaton,  Jefferson  led  the  House  to 
believe  that  it  was  not  till  September  that  he  heard  of  the 
actions  of  Burr ;  that  it  was  not  till  October  that  the  purpose 
of  the  conspirators  was  fully  known,  and  that  since  October 
no  pains  had  been  spared  to  bring  the  rogues  to  justice.  He 
told  the  House  of  the  action  of  Daveiss,  which  he  denounced 
as  "  a  premature  attempt "  to  punish  Burr  more  harmful  than 
beneficial;  of  the  orders  to  the  Governors  of  Orleans  and 
Mississippi ;  of  the  orders  to  Wilkinson ;  of  the  action  of  the 
Legislatures  of  Ohio  and  Kentucky ;  of  the  arrival  of  Wilkin- 
son at  New  Orleans ;  and  of  the  illegal  arrests  of  Bolhnann, 
Swartwout,  and  Ogden.  He  complained  that  one  had  been 
liberated  by  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  and  announced  that  the 
others,  having  been  sent  north  by  sea,  might  be  expected  to 
arrive  any  day. 

A  copy  of  the  message  was,  of  course,  sent  to  the  Senate, 
where  in  less  than  f  our-and-twenty  hours  a  bill  suspending  the 
writ  of  habeas  corpus  in  certain  cases  for  three  months  was 
rushed  through  with  the  rules  suspended. 

It  was  on  a  Friday  that  the  bill  passed.  The  House  did  not 
sit  on  Saturday,  and  Monday  came,  therefore,  before  Samuel 
Smith,  a  Senator  from  Maryland,  entered  the  House,  and,  tak- 
ing his  stand  before  the  Speaker's  desk,  said  :  "  Mr.  Speaker, 
I  am  directed  by  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  to  deliver  to 
this  House  a  confidential  message  in  writing."  The  floor  and 
the  gallery  were  instantly  cleared,  the  door  shut,  and  the  bill 
and  message  delivered.  This  done,  the  Senator  left,  but  he 
had  not  more  than  reached  the  Senate  when  the  injunction  of 
secrecy  was  taken  off,  the  doors  again  thrown  open,  and  a 
motion  made  that  the  bill  be  rejected.  This  motion  was  soon 
withdrawn  to  make  way  for  another ;  and  the  debate  then 
began. 

The  opponents  of  the  bill,  and  they  were  six  times  as 
numerous  as  the  supporters,  declared  it  both  dangerous  and 
unconstitutional,  and  not  fit  to  be  considered.  What,  said 


78     RESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xv. 

they,  is  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  f  It  is  a  writ  issued  by  a 
judge  directing  a  certain  person  in  custody  to  be  brought  be- 
fore a  court  that  the  legality  of  his  confinement  may  be  looked 
into.  If,  in  the  opinion  of  the  judge,  the  legality  is  not  estab- 
lished, the  prisoner  will  be  discharged ;  if,  in  the  opinion  of 
the  judge,  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  the  prisoner  guilty 
of  the  offence  charged,  he  will,  of  course,  be  remanded.  Is 
this  a  right  to  be  suspended  to  gratify  the  mere  apprehensions 
of  gentlemen  ?  Are  we  to  accuse  fellow-citizens  of  grave 
crimes,  and  then  deprive  them  of  the  right  to  appear  in  court 
and  prove  their  innocence  ?  No.  Yery  wisely,  then,  does 
the  Constitution  declare  that  "the  privilege  of  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus  shall  not  be  suspended  except  when,  in  case  of 
invasion  or  rebellion,  the  public  safety  shall  require  it."  But 
the  country  is  not  invaded.  There  is  no  rebellion.  How  then 
can  we  constitutionally  suspend  the  writ  ?  Gentlemen  say 
there  is  a  rebellion.  Be  it  so.  May  we  suspend  the  writ  in 
every  case  of  rebellion?  No,  we  may  not;  only,  says  the 
Constitution,  only  when,  in  case  of  rebellion,  the  public  safety 
requires  it.  Does  the  public  safety  require  it  ?  The  Presi- 
dent says  not.  "  The  fugitives  from  the  Ohio,"  he  informs 
us,  "  and  their  associates  from  the  Cumberland  cannot  threaten 
serious  danger  even  to  the  city  of  New  Orleans."  How  then 
can  public  safety  require  it  ?  No  one  could  tell ;  and,  when 
the  yea  and  nay  vote  was  taken  on  the  question,  Shall  this  bill 
be  rejected  ?  one  hundred  and  thirteen  answered  yea,  and 
nineteen  nay.* 

Bollmann  and  Swartwout  meantime  had  arrived,  and  the 
legal  contest  at  New  Orleans  was  re-enacted  at  Washington. 
The  same  day  the  House  threw  out  the  Suspension  Bill,  the 
Attorney-General  appeared  before  Judge  Cranch,  of  the  Dis- 
trict Court,  produced  an  affidavit  of  Wilkinson,  and  a  sworn 
statement  of  Eaton,  charging  Bollmann  and  Swartwout  with 
treason,  and  asked  for  a  warrant  for  their  arrest.  The  war- 
rant was  issued.  The  men  were  arrested,  and  an  application 
promptly  made  to  the  Supreme  Court  for  a  writ  of  habeas 
corpus.  On  the  thirteenth  of  February  the  writ  was  granted, 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  January  26,  180*7. 


1807.  THE  SCENE  AT  RICHMOND.  79 

on  the  sixteenth  a  motion  was  heard  for  the  discharge  of  the 
prisoners,  and  on  the  twenty-first  they  were  set  free.  Ogden, 
who  had  reached  Baltimore,  was  soon  after  liberated  there. 

Such  had  been  the  experience  of  the  agents  when,  at 
noon  on  March  thirtieth,  the  United  States  Marshal  entered 
the  room  in  the  Eagle  Tavern,  where  the  principal  was  under 
guard,  read  a  warrant,  made  the  arrest,  and  led  Burr  to  another 
room,  where  sat  the  Chief  Justice.  There  George  Hay,  the 
District  Attorney,  moved  a  commitment;  but  Marshall  de- 
cided to  hear  the  motion  in  public,  at  ten  o'clock  the  next 
day,  in  the  State  Capitol.  The  charges  were  treason  and  mis- 
demeanor. That  of  treason  was  dismissed ;  but  Burr  was  held, 
under  heavy  bonds,  to  answer  the  charge  of  misdemeanor  at 
the  next  session  of  the  Circuit  Court. 

The  next  session  began  on  May  twenty-second.  Punctu- 
ally on  that  day  the  trial  opened,  and,  with  one  short  inter- 
ruption, dragged  on  for  five  months.  During  these  months 
the  town  of  Richmond  presented  a  scene  unparalleled  in  the 
history  of  our  country.  The  fame  of  the  culprit,  the  eager- 
ness of  the  people  to  see  him,  the  sympathy  which  his  cause 
aroused,  the  host  of  witnesses  called  by  the  Government,  brought 
together  hundreds  of  strangers  from  every  quarter  of  the  coun- 
try. Among  those  who,  evening  after  evening,  crowded  the 
sidewalk  of  Brick  Row,  and  jostled  each  other  in  the  Eagle 
Tavern,  were  men  renowned  in  almost  every  profession,  in 
almost  every  occupation,  in  almost  every  walk  of  life.  Sol- 
diers, sailors,  orators  and  judges,  senators  and  politicians,  lead- 
ers of  armies,  leaders  of  parties,  lawyers,  adventurers,  all  were 
there.  Thither  came  Truxton,  who,  in  the  days  of  the  insolent 
Directory,  had  twice  humbled  the  tricolor  and  been  thanked 
by  Congress  for  his  services.  Thither  came  Eaton,  the  hero  of 
Derne,  and  Erich  Bollmann,  notorious  for  his  share  in  the  at- 
tempt to  liberate  Lafayette  from  the  Castle  of  Olmiitz.  Thith- 
er came  Benjamin  Latrobe,  first  of  American  architects  then 
living  and  first  of  all  men  to  use  American  vegetation  in  archi- 
tectural design.  There,  too,  were  Luther  Martin,  who  led  the 
Maryland  bar,  and  William  "Wirt,  whose  orations  are  still  the 
delight  of  schoolboys ;  "William  B.  Giles,  who  led  the  Republi- 
cans in  the  Senate,  and  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke,  who  led 


80     RESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.    OHAP.  rv. 

the  Quids  in  the  House  of  Representatives ;  Edmund  Ran- 
dolph, once  Governor  of  Virginia,  a  delegate  to  the  Convention 
that  framed  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  Attorney- 
General  and  a  Secretary  of  State  under  Washington  ;  John 
Graham,  Secretary,  and  George  Poindexter,  District  Attorney, 
of  Mississippi  Territory ;  Commodore  Shaw  and  General  James 
"Wilkinson ;  Harman  Blennerhasset  and  William  Duane,  who 
still  edited  the  Aurora  and  still  ruled  the  politics  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. There,  too,  were  John  Marshall,  the  greatest  of  all  our 
chief  justices,  and  Andrew  Jackson,  the  most  wilful,  the  most 
despotic,  the  most  interesting  of  all  our  Presidents. 

But  it  is  needless  to  go  through  the  list.  The  name  of 
Burr  is  of  itself  sufficient  to  bring  before  us  every  scene  in 
the  curious  farce  these  men  now  enacted.  "We  can  see  the 
hall  of  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses,  where  the  Court  met 
daily.  We  can  see  the  calm,  deliberate  Judge  on  the  bench, 
and  before  him  such  an  array  of  lawyers  as  had  not  been 
gathered  since  the  day  when,  in  another  legislative  chamber, 
the  position  of  the  actors  was  reversed;  when  the  culprit 
Burr  sat  in  the  judgment-seat,  and  another  justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  stood  a  prisoner  at  the  bar.  We  can  see 
Martin  as  he  denounces  Jefferson  for  letting  slip  "  the  hell- 
hounds of  persecution  to  hunt  down  my  friend,''  and  Wirt  as 
he  delivers  those  two  fine  passages  which  begin,  "  Who,  then,  is 
Aaron  Burr  ?  "  and  "  Who  is  Blennerhasset  ?  "  We  can  see 
Burr  marching  back  and  forth  between  the  penitentiary  and 
the  court,  surrounded  by  his  guards  and  escorted  by  two 
hundred  gentlemen  on  foot,  and  behold  him  at  his  daily  re- 
ceptions, more  crowded  than  the  levees  of  any  President. 
We  can  see  the  benches  packed  with  eager  listeners,  and  the 
crowd  that  stood  upon  the  court-house  green.  We  can  see  the 
calm  of  Marshall  as  he  delivers  his  decisions,  and  the  rage  of 
Jefferson  as  he  reads  of  them.  We  can  see  the  President 
defy  the  subpoena  of  the  Court,  and  in  his  gusts  of  passion 
bid  his  attorney  now  break  down  Martin,  "  that  bull-dog  of 
Federalism,"  and  now  move  to  commit  him,  "  as  particepa 
criminis  with  Burr."  We  can  see  the  confusion,  the  hesita- 
tion, the  hang-dog  looks  of  Wilkinson,  traitor,  perjurer,  false 
friend,  pensioner  of  Spain,  as  he  stands  before  the  jury  for 


1807.  THE  EXAMINATION  BEGUN.  81 

examination.  We  can  see  John  Randolph  laboring  in  the 
jury-room  to  indict  him  for  treason,  and  Aaron  Burr  laboring 
in  the  court-room  to  attach  him  for  contempt.  We  can  see 
Swartwout  jostle  him  in  the  Eagle  Tavern,  and  then  post  him 
as  a  liar,  a  villain,  and  a  coward,  because  he  will  not  fight. 
We  can  see  Andrew  Jackson  abuse  him  in  every  company, 
and,  choking  with  excitement,  laud  Burr  to  a  crowd  of  ad- 
mirers on  the  court-house  green.  Eaton  strutting  on  the 
streets,  tricked  out  in  colored  clothes  and  Turkish  sash,  tip- 
pling in  the  taverns,  and  prating  of  his  wrongs.  Martin  extol- 
ling on  every  hand  the  charms  of  Theodosia  Burr.  Theodosia 
winning  friends  to  her  father's  cause.  The  husband  of  Theo- 
dosia striving  to  appease  the  vengeance  and  pay  the  debts  of 
Blennerhasset.  Blennerhasset  in  his  prison  jotting  down  in 
his  diary  the  names  of  the  men  who  came  to  see  him,  and  of 
the  women  who  sent  him  fruit  and  jams ;  Duane  holding  up 
to  him  the  perfidy  of  his  companions  and  tempting  him  to 
give  evidence  against  Burr  ;  such  are  some  of  the  scenes  and 
some  of  the  characters  of  that  singular  trial.  S 

On  the  twenty-second  of  May,  when  all  was  ready,  when 
the  judges  had  entered,  when  the  lawyers  had  bowed,  when 
the  jurymen  were  called  and  were  about  to  be  sworn,  Burr 
arose  and  addressed  the  Court.  The  law  for  the  formation  of 
a  Grand  Jury  had,  he  declared,  been  violated.  By  that  law  the 
Marshal  was  empowered  to  summon  twenty-four  freeholders, 
any  sixteen  of  whom  that  appeared  in  Court  were  to  form  a 
Grand  Jury.  But  the  Marshal  had  done  more.  He  had  sum- 
moned twenty-five,  had  excused  two,  and  had  put  in  their  places 
Wilson  Carey  Nicholas  and  William  B.  Giles,  both  open  and 
implacable  enemies  of  Burr.  All  this  was  illegal.  The  Court 
alone  could  summon  twenty-five,  the  Court  alone  could  excuse, 
and  the  Court  alone  could  fill  the  places  of  those  excused. 

Marshall  decided  the  objection  to  be  well  taken,  and  Giles 
and  Nicholas  were  ruled  off  the  panel  as  wrongly  summoned. 
No  sooner  was  this  done  than  they  were  regularly  summoned, 
only  to  be  again  removed,  this  time  by  the  right  of  challenge 
from  Burr.  It  was  late  in  the  afternoon  when  the  sixteenth  .. 
man  was  accepted,  John  Randolph  made  foreman,  the  charge 
delivered,  and  the  Grand  Jury  sent  to  their  room.  On  the 
VOL.  m.— 7 


82     RESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.   CHAP.  xv. 

next  day,  which  was  Saturday,  and  again  on  Monday,  the 
jury  was  adjourned  because  of  the  absence  of  General  Wilkin- 
son, the  chief  witness  for  the  Government.  The  motion  to 
adjourn  then  led  the  defence  to  raise  the  question  of  the  kind 
of  evidence  to  be  expected  from  Wilkinson,  which  in  turn  led 
the  prosecution  to  move  that  the  Court  hear  witnesses  for  the 
commitment  of  Burr  for  high  treason.  The  defence  objected. 
The  Grand  Jury  was  then  in  session,  and,  being  in  session, 
alone  could  commit.  Marshall  overruled  the  objection,  and 
ordered  the  examination  of  witnesses  to  go  on.  The  rest  of 
the  week  was  then  spent  in  discussing  the  order  in  which  the 
witnesses  should  be  examined,  in  hearing  objections  to  the 
testimony  when  given,  and  in  fixing  an  amount  of  extra  bail. 
General  Wilkinson  being  still  absent,  an  adjournment  was 
taken  from  June  third  to  June  ninth.  A  motion  and  the  ar- 
gument on  the  motion  that  the  Court  issue  a  subpoena  duces 
tecum,  directed  to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  now 
took  up  the  time  till  June  thirteenth,  when  Marshall  read  his 
opinion.  The  motion  had  given  rise,  he  said,  to  three  ques- 
tions :  May  a  subpoena  be  issued  in  any  case  to  the  President  ? 
If  so,  may  it  do  more  than  bid  him  come  in  person  ?  May  it 
direct  him  to  bring  with  him  a  paper  which  is  to  be  the  sub- 
stance' of  his  testimony  ?  The  Constitution  made  it  clear,  and 
all  agreed  that  a  general  subpoena  could  be  issued.  The  pro- 
visions of  the  Constitution,  and  the  statute  which  gave  to  the 
accused  a  right  to  a  compulsory  process  of  the  Court,  made  no 
distinction  as  to  persons.  If  such  a  distinction  existed,  it  must 
be  in  the  law  of  evidence.  It  was  true  that  the  English  law 
did  make  one  exception,  and  that  one  exception  was  the  King. 
He  could  not  be  subjected  to  the  process  of  a  court.  But  be- 
tween the  King  of  England  and  the  President  of  the  United 
States  there  was  a  vast  difference.  It  was  a  principle  of  the 
English  Constitution  that  the  King  could  do  no  wrong.  It 
was  a  principle  of  the  United  States  Constitution  that  the 
President  could  do  much  wrong,  and  provision  was  made  for 
impeachment  and  removal.  The  King  could  not  be  a  subject. 
The  President  had  been  and  must  again  be  a  citizen.  If  there 
was  any  ground  on  which  he  could  claim  exemption,  it  must 
be  that  national  objects  demanded  his  whole  time.  But  it  was 


1807.  BURR  INDICTED.  83 

well  known  that  this  demand  was  not  unremitting.  The  allu- 
sion of  Marshall  was  to  the  months  which,  each  year,  the 
President  spent  at  Monticello.  Even  if  his  time  was  taken 
up  with  public  affairs,  that  would  be  no  reason  why  the  pro- 
cess should  not  be  issued,  though  it  might  be  a  reason  why  the 
process  should  not  be  obeyed.  • 

If,  then,  the  law  made  no  difference  between  the  President 
and  a  private  citizen  in  the  case  of  a  general  subpoena,  a  sub- 
pcena  ad  testificandum,  why  should  it  make  a  difference  in 
the  case  of  a  subpoena  duces  tecurn  f  The  one  bade  him 
come ;  the  other  bade  him  come  and  bring  a  certain  paper 
with  him.  Marshall  could  see  no  reason ;  sustained  the  mo- 
tion, and  issued  the  subpoena.  Jefferson  flatly  refused  to 
appear.  But  the  papers  were  in  time  transmitted  by  the  Dis- 
trict Attorney. 

AVhile  the  argument  wa«f  going  on,  "Wilkinson  arrived,  was 
brought  into  Court,  sworn,  and  sent  before  the  jury.  The 
defence  thereupon  attempted  to  secure  an  attachment  against 
him  for  contempt  of  Court.  He  had,  they  charged,  obstructed 
the  course  of  justice  by  the  suppression  of  witnesses,  and  were 
deep  in  the  argument  when  the  jury,  with  Randolph  at  their 
head,  marched  into  Court  with  four  indictments.  Two  were 
against  Harman  Blennerhasset  and  two  against  Aaron  Burr. 
Blennerhasset  was  still  at  large ;  but  Burr  was  committed  to 
the  custody  of  the  Marshal  and  lodged  that  night  in  the  jail. 
From  the  jail  he  was  soon  moved  to  the  penitentiary,  because 
of  the  foulness  and  unhealthfulness  of  the  building  used  as  a 
lock-up.  Two  days  later  he  was  brought 'to  the  bar,  pleaded 
not  guilty,  and  was  remanded  for  trial.  By  that  time  ten 
more  indictments  were  presented  against  Jonathan  Dayton, 
and  John  Smith,  Senator  from  Ohio,  Comfort  Tyler,  Israel 
Smith,  and  David  Floyd. 

Monday,  the  third  of  August,  was  the  day  fixed  for  trial, 
but  the  seventeenth  came  before  the  jurors  were  selected  and 
the  indictment  read.  In  it  were  two  counts.  One  set  forth 
that  Aaron  Burr,  moved  and  seduced  by  the  instigation  of  the 
devil,  had  levied  war  against  the  United  States ;  the  other 
charged  him  with  sailing  down  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi  for 
the  purpose  of  taking  New  Orleans.  To  prove  these  counts, 


84      RESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xv. 

the  prosecution  began  by  denning  that  overt  act  of  levying 
war  which  the  Constitution  declares  is  treason.  Their  defi- 
nition was,  "an  assemblage  of  armed  men  convened  together 
for  the  purpose  of  effecting  by  force  a  treasonable  design, 
which  force  is  meant  to  be  employed  before  their  dispersion." 
This  definition  made  it  necessary  to  show  that  there  was  a  trea- 
sonable design,  and  that  there  was  an  assemblage  of  men  for 
the  purpose  of  accomplishing  that  design.  To  prove  the  de- 
sign, Eaton,  Truxton,  Colonel  Morgan,  and  his  sons  were  called, 
sworn,  and  examined.  To  prove  the  assemblage  of  men  on 
Blennerhasset's  Island,  reliance  was  put  on  the  testimony  of 
the  gardener,  the  groom,  the  farm-hand,  the  man  employed 
by  the  Governor  of  Ohio  to  watch  Blennerhasset,  the  man 
who  made  the  setting  poles  for  the  boats,  and  Dudley  Wood- 
bridge,  the  business  partner  of  Blennerhasset  at  Marietta. 

And  now  the  defence  interposed.  Not  a  scrap  of  evidence, 
they  claimed,  had  been  produced  to  show  that  Aaron  Burr 
was  present  when  the  act  of  levying  war  was  committed  on 
the  island.  Indeed,  the  attorney  for  the  prosecution  admitted 
that  Burr  was  at  that  time  neither  present  nor  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  Virginia.  The  defence,  therefore,  moved  that 
further  evidence  be  not  admitted,  and  gave  four  reasons.  The 
first  was,  that  Aaron  Burr  not  being  on  the  island  when  the 
men  assembled,  could  not  be  a  principal  in  the  treason  within 
the  meaning  of  the  Constitution ;  the  second  was,  that,  as  the 
indictment  charged  him  with  levying  war,  it  must  be  proved 
as  laid,  and  no  evidence  to  show  him  guilty  of  the  act  by 
relation  could  be  admitted ;  the  third  was,  that  if  he  were  a 
principal  at  all  he  must  be  a  principal  in  the  second  degree, 
and  no  evidence  could  be  let  in  to  show  him  to  be  such  till  a 
record  of  the  conviction  of  the  principal  in  the  first  degree 
had  been  produced  in  Court ;  the  fourth  followed  from  tliis, 
and  was,  that  no  evidence  to  connect  Burr  with  the  men  on 
the  island,  and  so  make  him  guilty  of  treason,  could  be  offered 
till  the  men  on  the  island  had  been  proved  guilty  of  treason, 
which  had  not  been  done. 

During  ten  days  the  Court  heard  argument.  Every  lawyer 
engaged  in  the  case  spoke.  When  they  were  through,  the 
Chief  Justice  declared  that  such  solidity  of  argument,  such 


1807.  BUER  ACQUITTED.  85 

displays  of  legal  learning,  such  eloquence,  he  had  never  heard 
before.  Of  eloquence  there  was,  in  truth,  a  fine  show,  for 
it  was  during  this  discussion  that  Wirt  delivered  that  well- 
known  oration  in  which  he  drew  the  characters  of  Blenner- 
hasset  and  Aaron  Burr.  In  the  opinion  of  Marshall,  the  in- 
dictment charged  Burr  with  levying  war  against  the  United 
States.  To  make  good  the  accusation,  the  overt  act  must  be 
proved,  not  by  the  establishment  of  other  facts  from  which 
the  jury  could  reason  to  the  particular  act  charged,  but  by 
the  testimony  of  two  witnesses.  There  was  not,  however, 
even  one  witness.  Indeed,  it  was  admitted  by  everybody  that 
Burr  was  not  on  the  island,  was  not  in  Wood  County,  was  not 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  Virginia  when  the  thirty  men  gath- 
ered at  the  home  of  Blennerhasset.  But  his  presence  was 
necessary  to  make  him  guilty  of  levying  war.  All  evidence 
to  show  him  guilty  was,  therefore,  irrelevant,  and  could  not 
be  introduced. 

As  soon  as  Marshall  had  announced  his  decision  the  prose- 
cution abandoned  the  case,  which  went  at  once  to  the  jury. 
Next  day  the  indictment  was  returned.  Across  the  face  of 
the  paper  were  the  words :  "  We  of  the  jury  say  that  Aaron 
Burr  is  not  proved  to  be  guilty  under  this  indictment  by  any 
evidence  submitted  to  us ;  we  therefore  find  him  not  guilty." 

This  disposed  of  the  charge  of  treason ;  but  the  charge  of 
high  misdemeanor  remained.  New  bail  was  now  required,  a 
new  jury  was  sworn,  and  on  September  ninth  the  second  in- 
dictment was  read.  The  fifth  section  of  the  act  of  1794: 
ordains  that  if  any  person  shall,  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
United  States,  begin,  or  set  on  foot,  or  provide,  or  prepare  the 
means  for  any  military  expedition  against  the  territory  or  do- 
minion of  any  foreign  prince  or  State,  he  shall  be  guilty  of  a 
high  misdemeanor.  Under  this  law  the  indictment  had  been 
framed,  and  accused  Burr  of  having,  on  the  tenth  of  Decem- 
ber, 1806,  on  Blennerhasset's  Island,  begun  a  military  expedi- 
tion against  the  dominions  of  the  King  of  Spain.  But  Burr 
was  not  on  the  island  on  the  day  named.  A  second  time, 
therefore,  the  Court  shut  out  all  evidence  to  connect  him  with 
the  men  who  on  that  day  were  on  the  island,  a  second  time  a 
jury  brought  in  a  verdict  of  not  guilty,  and  so  ended  the  trial. 


86     RESULTS   OF  THE   PURCHASE   OF  LOUISIANA.    CHAP.  xv. 

What  now  followed  was  an  examination  on  new  charges  of 
treason,  and  the  hearing  of  an  argument  on  a  motion  to  send 
Burr  for  trial  to  Mississippi  Territory  where  overt  acts  were 
said  to  have  been  committed.  The  defence  made  two  objec- 
tions :  In  the  first  place,  the  only  court  that  could  take  cogni- 
zance of  the  crime  charged  was  a  Circuit  Court  of  the  United 
States ;  in  the  territories  there  were  no  Circuit  Courts  of  the 
United  States,  and  therefore  Burr  could  not  lawfully  be  sent 
to  Mississippi.  In  the  second  place,  the  verdict  already 
rendered  was  a  bar  to  further  prosecution  for  different  overt 
acts  of  the  same  treason.  As  to  the  soundness  of  these  argu- 
ments the  Court  was  greatly  in  doubt,  heard  a  most  elaborate 
discussion,  and  then  decided  that  it  had  no  power  to  commit 
Burr  for  trial  in  Mississippi  Territory.  But,  that  the  verdict 
was  a  bar  to  further  proceedings,  the  Court  was  not  ready  to 
assert ;  and,  while  considering  the  matter,  declared  that  it 
would  hear  testimony  concerning  the  behavior  of  the  accused 
within  the  United  States.  During  nearly  five  weeks  the  ex- 
amination and  cross-examination  of  witnesses  went  on.  Then 
the  Chief  Justice  committed  Aaron  Burr  and  Harman  Blen- 
nerhasset  for  preparing,  setting  on  foot,  and  providing  means 
for  a  military  expedition  against  the  territory  of  a  foreign 
prince  with  whom  the  United  States  were  at  peace.  The 
District  Attorney  asked  that  Ohio  be  made  the  place  of  trial. 

Marshall  granted  the  request,  and  the  two  prisoners,  before 
being  discharged,  were  bound  over  to  appear  at  the  session  of 
the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States  to  be  held  at  Chillicothe 
in  January,  1808.  "When  that  time  came  neither  appeared. 
The  Judge,  supposing  they  might  have  been  delayed  on  the 
way,  and  having  no  other  business  on  the  docket,  adjourned 
for  one  week,  after  which  the  examination  of  witnesses  for  the 
United  States  was  begun.  After  twenty-nine  had  been  sent 
before  the  Grand  Jury,  indictments  against  Burr  and  Blenner- 
hasset  were  returned.  As  neither  was  even  then  present,  the 
District  Attorney  moved  to  have  their  recognizances  extreated 
and  their  default  made  absolute.  The  lawyer  who  acted  as 
their  counsel  asked  to  have  the  case  sent  over  to  the  September 
term.  But  the  District  Attorney  denied  that  they  could  appear 
by  counsel,  pressed  his  motion,  and  the  Court  made  the  default 


1808.  FATE   OF  THE  CONSPIRATORS.  87 

absolute.  That  they  would  have  been  prosecuted  had  they 
appeared  is  not  likely,  for  no  petit  jury  had  been  summoned, 
and  without  a  petit  jury  they  could  not  have  been  tried. 

The  later  career  of  the  conspirators  is  not  without  interest. 
From  Richmond,  Burr  and  Blennerhasset  went  with  Luther 
Martin  to  Baltimore,  where  the  people  took  a  half-holiday, 
and,  in  company  with  John  Marshall  and  Luther  Martin? 
burned  them  in  effigy  on  Gallows  Hill.*  Fearing  for  their 
personal  safety,  they  fled  to  Philadelphia,  where  Burr  hid 
himself  so  securely  that  even  the  editor  of  the  Aurora  could 
not  find  him  out,  and,  at  the  very  time  he  ought  to  have  been 
at  Chillicothe,  fled  in  disguise  to  London.  During  some  years 
he  wandered  over  Europe,  but  came  back  at  last  to  New  York, 
and,  in  1836,  died  on  Staten  Island.  Blennerhasset  died  in 
abject  poverty  abroad.  Bollmann,  after  turning  State's  evi- 
dence and  refusing  a  pardon,  vainly  attempted  to  practise 
medicine  at  New  Orleans,  but  soon  followed  Burr  to  England. 
Returning  to  the  United  States  in  the  midst  of  the  banking 
excitement,  he  rose  into  temporary  notice  as  the  author  of 
some  "  Paragraphs  on  Banks  "  ;  and  then  again  went  back  to 
London.  Alston  became  in  time  Governor  of  South  Carolina. 
John  Adair,  at  the  first  attack  on  the  conspiracy,  in  1806,  re- 

*  As  illustrative  of  the  humor  and  the  manners  of  the  times,  I  venture  to  give 
the  full  text  of  the  handbill  calling  the  meeting : 

AWFUL ! ! ! 

The  public  are  hereby  notified,  that  four  choice  spirits  are  this  afternoon  at 
three  o'clock  to  be  marshalled  for  execution  by  the  hangman  at  Gallows  Hill,  in 
consequence  of  the  sentence  pronounced  against  them  by  the  unanimous  voice  of 
every  honest  man  in  the  community.  The  respective  crimes  for  which  they  suffer 
are  thus  stated  in  the  record  : 

1.  Chief-Justice  M ,  for  repeating  his  X.  Y.  Z.  tricks,  which  are  said  to 

have  been  much  aggravated  by  his  strange  capers  in  open  court  under  pleas  of 
irrelevancy. 

2.  His  Quid  Majesty,  charged  with  the  trifling  crime  of  wishing  to  divide  the 
Union  and  farm  Baron  Bastrap's  grant. 

3.  Blunderhassett,  the  chemist  and  fiddler,  convicted  of  conspiracy  to  destroy 
the  tone  of  the  public  fiddle. 

4th  and  last — but  not  least  in  crime — Lawyer  Brandy  Bottle,  for  a  false,  scan- 
dalous, malicious  prophecy,  that  before  six  months  Aaron  Burr  would  divide  the 
Union. 

N.  B. — The  execution  of  accomplices  is  postponed  to  a  future  day. 


88     RESULTS  OF  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.  CHAP.  xv. 

signed  from  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  and  was  succeeded 
by  Henry  Clay.  John  Smith,  a  Senator  from  Ohio,  after  nar- 
rowly escaping  expulsion  from  the  Senate  as  an  accomplice  of 
Burr,  followed  the  example  of  Adair  and  resigned.  Swart- 
wout  lived  to  become  collector  of  the  port  of  New  York,  and 
to  rob  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  of  more  than  a  million 
dollars.  Dayton  and  Ogden  sank  at  once  from  view.  Of  the 
men  who  went  down  the  Mississippi  with  Burr,  few  ever  came 
back.  The  rest  wandered  over  the  Mississippi  Territory,  and, 
it  is  said,  supplied  the  people  for  years  to  come  with  travelling 
doctors,  small  politicians,  teachers  of  music,  and,  what  was 
needed  vastly  more,  teachers  of  schools.  To  the  last,  Wilkin- 
son continued  to  pose  as  an  honest  man ;  was  protected  and 
honored  by  Jefferson ;  was  thanked  by  the  Legislature  of 
Georgia  for  betraying  Burr ;  was  acquitted  by  a  packed  court 
of  inquiry,  and  has  left  behind  him,  in  justification  of  his  life 
and  deeds,  three  ponderous  volumes  of  memoirs,  as  false  as 
any  yet  written  by  man. 


/f\  ;        UPPER      CANADA 
\  Maiden 


1776.  A  LAND  BOUNTY  PROMISED.  89 


CHAPTEK  XVI. 

THE   USES   MADE   OF  THE   PUBLIC   LANDS. 

THE  purchase  of  Louisiana  and  the  addition  to  the  public 
lands  of  the  region  west  of  the  Mississippi  is  a  fit  event  at 
which  to  pause  in  my  narrative  and  relate  the  history  of  the 
uses  already  made  of  that  splendid  tract  of  country  which, 
east  of  the  Mississippi,  was  given  to  Congress  by  the  States. 

In  the  dark  days  of  seventeen  hundred  and  seventy-six, 
when  the  patriot  army  had  been  driven  from  Canada ;  when 
'New  York  was  in  possession  of  the  British ;  when  Washing- 
ton had  fled  up  the  Hudson  river ;  when  Howe  was  offering 
amnesty  to  all  who  would  return  to  their  allegiance,  and  a 
revision  of  the  acts  of  Parliament  of  which  the  colonists  com- 
plained ;  when  the  term  of  service  of  the  militia  was  fast  ex- 
piring, and  desertions  grew  more  numerous  day  after  day, 
the  Continental  Congress  took  up  the  task  of  raising  an  army 
to  serve  through  the  war,  and  voted  that  eighty-eight  battal- 
ions should  be  raised  by  the  States.  To  encourage  enlistment, 
twenty  dollars  were  ordered  to  be  given  to  each  non-commis- 
sioned officer  and  man  who  would  serve  through  the  war,  and 
to  every  man,  from  colonel  down  to  private,  a  land  bounty, 
according  to  his  rank.  Where  the  land  was  to  come  from 
no  one  undertook  to  say,  for  it  was  a  question  whether  Con- 
gress owned  an  acre  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  The  cost  of 
getting  it  was  to  be  made  a  war  expense  and,  like  every  other 
war  expense,  was  to  be  borne  by  the  States.  There  were, 
indeed,  even  at  that  early  day,  men  who  believed  that  the 
Congress  did  own  land ;  who  held  that  there  was  a  vast  public 
domain  out  of  which  the  promised  bounty  could  in  time  be 
made  good.  These  men  admitted  that  the  moment  the  colo- 


90  THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

nies  threw  off  allegiance  to  Great  Britian,  the  moment  they 
gave  their  declaration  of  independence  to  the  world,  that 
moment  they  became  free,  sovereign,  and  independent  States, 
and,  as  such,  succeeded  to  all  the  rights,  privileges,  and  immu- 
nities ever  enjoyed,  and  to  all  the  lands  ever  owned  by  the 
Crown  within  their  boundaries.  But  that  any  colony  had 
ever  been  bounded  by  the  South  Sea,  or  even  by  the  Mississippi, 
they  denied  emphatically.  The  country  beyond  the  moun- 
tains had,  they  claimed,  been  discovered  by  the  French,  had 
been  explored  by  the  French,  had  been  held  by  the  French 
till,  by  the  treaty  of  1762,  France  made  over  to  England  so 
much  of  it  as  lay  east  of  the  Mississippi  river.  Even  then 
the  cession  was  made  not  to  the  colonies,  but  to  the  King,  a 
fact  which  the  King  recognized  when,  in  his  proclamation  of 
1763,  he  drew  a  line  around  the  head-waters  of  the  rivers 
flowing  into  the  Atlantic  and  forbade  his  governors  to  suffer  a 
colonial  settler  to  cross  it.  All  the  back  country,  all  the  terri- 
tory west  of  the  mountains,  was  therefore,  at  the  time  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  Crown  land  without  the  colonies, 
and,  as  such,  became  by  the  Declaration  the  common  property 
of  the  United  States.  This,  answered  the  men  who  held  the 
opposite  opinion,  is  a  bold  and  novel  construction.  The  proc- 
lamation did  indeed  establish  such  a  line.  The  proclama- 
tion did  indeed  declare  that  lands  west  of  it  were  reserved 
"under  the  sovereignty,  protection,  and  dominion"  of  the 
King.  But  the  proclamation  also  declared  that  the  reserva- 
tion was  "  for  the  use  of  the  said  Indians,"  that  it  was  "  for 
the  present,"  and  "  until  our  further  pleasure  be  known."  It 
was,  then,  not  a  restriction  on  the  territorial  limits  of  the  colo- 
nies, but  an  instruction  to  the  governors  concerning  the  time, 
place,  and  manner  of  making  grants.  That  it  could  not  have 
been  a  restriction  on  the  limits  of  colonies  is  plain,  for  it  ap- 
plied to  Pennsylvania,  whose  western  boundary  was  definitely 
fixed  by  a  proprietary  grant  that  could  not  be  changed  by 
proclamation.  The  ancient  charter  boundaries  of  the  colonies 
are  not  impaired  in  the  slightest  degree  by  the  proclamation 
of  1763,  and  now  that  they  have  become  sovereign  States, 
the  restriction  is  removed  and  their  jurisdiction  once  more 
extends  to  the  Mississippi. 


1776.  WESTSYLVANIA.  91 

In  the  dispute  which  thus  arose,  Congress  was  early  in- 
volved. Before  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  six 
weeks  old  a  petition  for  a  new  State  beyond  the  mountains 
was  on  its  way  to  Philadelphia.  It  came  from  the  region 
around  the  source  of  the  Ohio,  a  region  claimed  alike  by 
Pennsylvania  and  Virginia,  and  begged  Congress  to  treat  the 
people  as  settlers  on  public  lands  and  form  them  into  a  com- 
monwealth. The  claims  set  up  by  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia 
to  their  country  had,  they  declared,  overwhelmed  them  with 
frauds,  impostures,  violences,  depredations,  feuds,  animosi- 
ties, discords.  The  soil  was  rich.  The  people  many.  Twen- 
ty-five thousand  families,  they  asserted,  were  settled  in  the 
region.  Yet  they  could  not  be  rich,  flourishing,  and  happy 
if  made  dependent  on  Pennsylvania  or  Virginia.  They 
prayed,  therefore,  that  Congress  would  make  their  coun- 
try a  separate  State,  give  it  the  name  of  "  The  Province 
and  Government  of  Westsylvania,"  and  admit  it  into  the 
Union  as  the  fourteenth  province  of  the  American  Confed- 
eracy.* 

"WTiat  was  done  with  the  petition  can  never  be  known,  for 
a  year  passed  away  before  any  record  was  made  on  the  jour- 
nals of  Congress  concerning  the  Western  lands.  A  plan  of 
government  was  then  being  framed.  Propositions  of  all  sorts 
were  being  offered,  and  among  them  was  one  which  soon  be- 
came part  of  the  eighth  article  of  Confederation.  This  was 
the  rule  for  raising  revenue.  It  provided  that  the  cost  of  the 
war  should  be  paid  from  a  common  treasury ;  that  the  treas- 
ury should  be  supplied  by  the  States ;  that  the  States  should 
contribute  in  proportion  to  the  value  of  the  surveyed  and 
granted  lands  within  their  limits ;  and  that  the  value  of  these 
lands  should  be  determined  in  such  manner  as  Congress  might 

*  A  manuscript  copy  of  this  petition  was  discovered  by  Mr.  F.  D.  Stone,  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Historical  Society,  among  the  papers  of  Jasper  Yeatcs.  The 
boundary  of  the  proposed  State  was :  "  Beginning  at  the  Eastern  Bank  of  the 
Ohio,  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Scioto,  &  running  thence  in  a  direct  Line  to  the 
Owasito  Pass,  thence  to  the  top  of  Allegheny  Mountains,  thence  with  the  Top  of 
the  said  Mountains  to  the  northern  limit  of  the  purchase  made  from  the  Indians 
in  1768,  at  the  Treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix,  thence  with  the  said  Limits  to  the  Alle- 
gheny or  Ohio  River,  and  thence  down  the  said  River  as  purchased  from  the  said 
Indiana  at  the  said  Treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix  to  the  Beginning." 


92  THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

direct.  No  sooner  was  it  accepted  *  than  the  opponents  of  the 
landed  States  moved  f  that  the  Legislatures  be  requested  to 
lay  before  Congress  a  description  of  the  domain  claimed  by 
each,  and  a  summary  of  the  grants,  the  treaties,  the  proofs  on 
which  the  claims  were  founded.^ 

The  motion  was  promptly  voted  down.  Thereupon  it  was 
moved  that  the  United  States  should  have  sole  power  to  fix 
the  western  limits  of  such  States  as  claimed  to  the  South  Sea, 
and  to  dispose  of  lands  beyond  this  boundary  for  the  benefit 
of  all.  This,  too,  was  voted  down.  But  the  friends  to  limi- 
tation were  not  discouraged,  and  a  third  time  came  forward 
with  a  motion.  They  now  asked  that  sole  power  be  given  to 
Congress  to  fix  the  western  limits  of  States  claiming  to  the 
Mississippi  or  the  South  Sea,  and  to  lay  out  the  land  beyond 
these  limits  into  separate  and  independent  States  as  fast  as 
the  number  and  wants  of  the  people  required.  Again  they 
were  defeated,  and  with  this,  for  the  time  being,  they 
stopped.* 

So  persistent  an  attack  alarmed  the  land-owning  States. 
They  in  turn  took  the  offensive,  and  a  few  days  later  |  added 
to  the  articles  of  Confederation  the  provision  that  no  State 
should,  without  its  consent,  be  stripped  of  territory  for  the 
benefit  of  the  United  States.  In  this  form  the  articles  went 
out  to  the  States.A  Some  ratified  promptly ;  some  hesitated. 
Some  accepted  them  as  they  were;  some  proposed  amend- 
ments; and  among  the  amendments  were  three  which  bore 
directly  on  the  ownership  of  the  Western  territory.  Mary- 
land demanded  that  power  be  given  to  Congress  to  appoint  a 
Board  of  Commissioners  to  fix  the  limits  of  States  claiming 
to  the  Mississippi.  Rhode  Island  asked  that  the  title  to  what 
had  once  been  crown  lands  should  go  to  the  United  States ; 
the  jurisdiction  to  remain  with  the  States  in  which  they  were 
situated.  From  New  Jersey  came  a  long  communication  to 
the  same  effect.  Again  the  landed  States  rallied ;  again  the 

*  October  14,  1777.  f  October  15,  1777. 

f  The  States  having  claims  to  Western  lands  were  Massachusetts,  Connecticut, 
New  York,  Virginia,  North  and  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia.  See  History  of  the 
People  of  the  United  States,  vol.  ii,  Map. 

*  October  15,  1777.  |  October  27,  1777.  A  November  15,  1777. 


1778.  MARYLAND  ON  THE  WESTERN  LAND.  93 

propositions  were  voted  down,*  and  an  urgent  appeal  sent  to 
the  four  hesitating  States  to  ratify,  f  Georgia  did  «eo  at  once ;  $ 
Delaware*  and  New  Jersey,!  murmuring  and  protesting,  soon 
followed.  Maryland  alone  stood  out.  In  a  declaration  laid 
before  Congress,  in  the  early  days  of  the  new  year,A  her 
position  was  clearly  made  known.  It  was,  she  asserted,  against 
equity,  against  good  policy,  to  admit  the  claims  to  Western 
land.  Landless  States  ought  not  to  be  burdened  with  the  cost 
of  subduing  and  defending  vast  tracts  of  territory  from  which 
they  were  to  gain  nothing  whatever.  If  the  Union  were  to 
last,  power  to  fix  the  western  limits  of  the  landed  States  must 
be  given  to  Congress.  When  this  was  done  she  would  ratify 
and  sign  the  articles,  and  not  before. 

And  now  the  contest  began  in  earnest.  On  the  one  hand 
stood  Maryland,  deserted  by  every  other  State  in  the  Union, 
yet  stoutly  contending  for  a  public  domain  under  an  absolute 
jurisdiction  of  Congress.  On  the  other  hand  stood  Virginia, 
claiming  as  her  own  the  whole  Northwest,  and  refusing  to 
give  one  acre  for  the  public  good.  Between  them  stood  New 
Jersey,  Delaware,  Rhode  Island.  They  would  not  go  so  far 
as  Virginia,  for  they  longed  to  see  the  "Western  lands  made  a 
source  of  Federal  revenue.  They  would  not  go  so  far  as 
Maryland,  for  they  did  not  want  new  States  added  to  the 
Union,  nor  jurisdiction  over  the  West  given  to  Congress. 

Her  declaration  made,  Maryland  followed  it  up  with  in- 
structions to  her  delegates,  forbidding  them  to  sign  the  articles 
till  the  amendment  asked  for  in  1777  was  added.Q  Virginia 
retaliated ;  opened  a  land-office ;  offered  farms  beyond  the 
mountains  at  forty  pounds,  Virginia  currency,  the  hundred 
acres ;  and  roused  the  anger  of  the  men  who  in  1776  denied 
her  authority,  and  petitioned  Congress  to  form  the  State  of 

*  Journals  of  Congress,  June,  1778. 
f  July  10,  1778. 

j  July  24,  1778. 

*  February  22,  1779.     On  February  23,  1779,  the  delegates  presented  two 
resolutions  passed  by  the  Delaware  Legislature  concerning  the  Western  lands. 

|  November  25,  1778.  For  the  protesting  letter,  see  Secret  Journals  of  Con- 
gress, January. 

A  Passed  December  15,  1778;  presented  January  6,  1779. 
0  Passed  January  6,  1779  ;  presented  May  21,  1779. 


94:  THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

Westsylvania.  Her  land  sales  were  to  begin  in  October,  but 
in  September*  memorials  begging  Congress  to  stop  the  sales 
came  up  from  the  Western  country,  f 

Virginia  protested  against  the  reception  of  the  papers ; 
but  they  were  received,  committed,  and  reported  on.  The 
report  suggested  that  Virginia  be  urged  to  close  her  land- 
office,  and  that  all  States  having  Western  lands  be  asked  to 
make  no  grants  while  the  war  lasted.  A  motion  to  this  effect 
was  thereupon  made  by  Maryland,  was  carried,  and  in  the 
closing  days  of  the  year  called  out  a  remonstrance  from  Yir- 
ginia.  The  tone  was  strong,  the  language  was  high,  yet  it 
showed,  in  a  manner  not  to  be  mistaken,  that  Virginia  was 
giving  way.  She  would  not  cede  her  territory;  she  would 
not  suffer  her  claims  to  be  reviewed  by  Congress;  but  she 
would  listen  to  any  reasonable  proposition  for  removing  the 
ostensible  cause  of  delay  in  completing  the  ratification  of  the 
articles  of  Confederation.  That  cause,  however,  was  removed 
by  New  York. 

The  State  of  New  York  was  then  represented  in  Congress 
by  Philip  Schuyler  and  Robert  Livingston.  They  had  re- 
cently been  elected,  and  had  just  taken  their  seats.  Some 
weeks  before  presenting  his  credentials,  Schuyler  had  written 
a  long  letter  to  Congress  on  the  subject  of  a  peace  with  the 
Northern  Indians,  and  the  report  of  the  committee  on  his 
letter  he  now  persuaded  Congress  to  take  up.  While  it  was 
under  consideration  a  Maryland  congressman  moved  to  amend 
it.  Determined  as  ever  to  secure  the  Western  country  for 
the  United  States,  he  proposed  to  add  the  declaration  that 
Congress  was  ready  to  receive  any  lands  the  Indians  might  be 
willing  to  cede,  reserving  to  any  State  its  right  to  a  prior 
claim.  The  New  York  delegates  instantly  moved  to  add  that 
such  cession  should  be  for  the  benefit  of  the  State  having  the 
prior  right.  Both  motions  were  lost ;  whereupon  the  Mary- 
land delegate  moved  that  one  condition  of  the  peace  be  that 

*  September  14,  1779. 

f  One  bore  the  name  of  William  Trent,  who  signed  in  behalf  of  Thomas 
Walpole  and  the  members  of  the  Grand  Company.  The  other  was  signed  by 
George  Morgan,  in  behalf  of  those  who  lived  on  the  tracts  called  Indiana  and 
Yandalia. 


1780.  THE  NEW  YORK  CESSION.  95 

the  Indians  should  neither  cede  nor  sell  any  land  except  to 
the  United  States,  or  by  consent  of  Congress.  This,  too,  was 
lost ;  and,  two  days  later,  Schuyler,  having  obtained  leave  of 
absence,  hurried  back  to  Albany. 

At  Albany  he  found  the  Houses  in  session,  and  to  them 
he  gave  a  long  account  of  what  had  taken  place  in  Congress. 
He  told  them  of  the  motion  of  the  Maryland  delegate,  of 
the  good  fight  he  made  against  it,  and  of  its  rejection. 
He  told  them  that  defeat  did  not  end  the  matter ;  that  a  few 
days  later  he  was  shown  another  resolution  to  be  moved  on 
the  first  opportunity;  that  this  resolution  provided  that  all 
the  old  Crown  lands  within  the  limits  of  any  State  should  be 
considered  as  the  property  of  the  United  States,  and  disposed 
of  for  the  common  good.  He  told  them  that  when  he  pro- 
tested against  such  an  unjust  measure  he  was  answered  that 
the  landed  States  must  submit  to  it,  or  accept  a  reasonable 
western  limit;  that  when  he  asked  what  was  a  reasonable 
western  limit,  a  map  was  produced  with  the  boundary  marked 
upon  it;  that  for  Virginia,  the  two  Carolinas,  and  Georgia 
this  boundary  was  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  or  at  least  the 
Ohio  and  the  Mississippi ;  and  for  New  York,  a  line  from 
the  northwest  corner  of  Pennsylvania,  through  the  lakes  and 
the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  parallel  of  forty-five  degrees.  He 
asked  that  the  Legislature  would  instruct  their  delegates  in 
Congress  what  to  do.  The  Legislature  considered  the  letter 
for  a  few  weeks,  and  then  ceded  to  the  United  States  all 
claims  of  New  York  to  the  region  west  of  the  present  western 
boundary  of  the  State.* 

The  struggle  for  the  ownership  of  the  Western  Territory 
now  became  one  of  absorbing  interest.  Failure  to  settle  the 
boundary  dispute  between  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia  had  filled 
the  people  dwelling  west  of  the  mountains  with  doubts  as  to 
whom  they  should  pay  taxes,  as  to  whom  they  owed  allegiance, 
as  to  whom  they  should  look  for  titles  to  their  farms,  and 
forced  them,  in  self-defence,  to  again  take  up  the  new  State 
movement.f  Once  more  the  men  of  Kentucky  denied  the 


*  February  19,  1780.     Laws  of  New  York  (Jones  and  Varick),  pp.  53,  54. 
f  "  Mr.  Adams  was  with  me  the  other  day,  who  seems  greatly  concerned  about 


96  THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

jurisdiction  of  Virginia ;  charged  her  with  selling  land  and  not 
requiring  residence  thereon ;  with  taxing  them  when  enrolled 
in  the  militia ;  with  administering  no  justice ;  with  enforcing 
no  law ;  with  compelling  them  to  swear  allegiance  to  her  after 
they  had  sworn  allegiance  to  the  United  States ;  and  in  a  long 
petition  asked  to  have  their  country  made  a  State  and  admitted 
into  the  Union.*  Thomas  Paine  wrote  in  their  behalf,  and  in 
his  pamphlet "  Public  Good  "  labored  hard  to  prove  that  Virginia 
did  not  own  one  acre  beyond  the  mountains,  f  Even  Pelatiah 
"Webster  was  enticed  away  from  his  favorite  study  of  Free 
Trade  and  Finance  to  attack  Paine's  pamphlet  and  instruct  his 
countrymen  on  the  best  use  to  be  made  of  the  Western  lands.:}: 
Congress,  gathering  up  the  Maryland  Declaration,  the 
Virginia  Remonstrance,  and  the  acts  of  cession  of  New  York, 
sent  a  copy  of  them  to  each  State.*  Maryland  was  urged  to 
sign  the  articles  of  Confederation ;  the  land-owning  States 
were  asked  to  cede  "Western  territory.  A  solemn  promise 
was  given  that  land  so  granted  should  be  used  for  the  com- 
mon good  ;  that  it  should  be  settled  and  formed  into  distinct 
republican  States ;  that  the  States  should  be  admitted  into 


the  progress  of  the  new  State ;  he  informs  me  that  a  number  of  persons  over  the 
river,  who  had  signed  the  Petitions  now  in  your  hands,  have  been  prevailed  upon 
to  vote  for  a  new  State,  and  he  informs  me  that  there  is  to  be  a  meeting  at  Coin 
Cooks  the  25th,  if  I  mistake  not,  of  June,  in  order  to  take  the  sense  of  the  people 
largely."  Alexander  McClean  to  Thomas  Scott,  Redstone,  May  31,  1780.  History 
of  Washington  County,  p.  232. 

*  Papers  of  Old  Congress.     The  petition,  dated  May  15,  1780,  is  printed  in 
full  in  Roosevelt's  The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  ii,  pp.  398,  399. 

f  Public  Good,  being  an  Examination  of  the  Claims  of  Virginia  to  the  Vacant 
Western  Territory,  and  of  the  Right  of  the  United  States  to  the  same,  etc.  By 
the  author  of  Common  Sense.  Philadelphia,  1780. 

J  Webster  urged  the  States  to  cede  the  land  and  Congress  to  hold  the  ceded 
territory  till  the  adjoining  country  was  fully  settled.  Then  he  would  have  town- 
ships, six,  eight,  or  ten  miles  square,  laid  out  in  tiers  contiguous  to  the  settled 
country,  and  sold  at  auction  for  not  less  than  one  dollar  the  acre.  When  the  first 
tier  of  townships  were  sold  the  second  should  be  laid  out.  The  township  six 
miles  square,  the  arrangement  in  tiers,  the  minimum  price  of  a  dollar  the  acre, 
and  sale  at  auction,  were,  a  few  years  later,  adopted.  An  Essay  on  the  Extent 
and  Value  of  our  Western  Unlocated  Lands,  and  the  Proper  Method  of  disposing 
of  them,  so  as  to  gain  the  greatest  Possible  Advantage  from  them.  Pelatiah 
Webster.  Philadelphia,  1781. 

*  September  6,  10,  1780. 


1781.  NEW  STATES  DESIRED.  97 

the  Union,  and  have  all  the  sovereignty,  freedom,  and  inde- 
pendence enjoyed  by  the  thirteen.  *  Connecticut  complied  at 
once.f  Virginia  soon  followed.  $  Maryland  instructed  her 
delegates  to  sign,*  and  on  March  first,  1781,  the  articles  of 
Confederation  went  into  force. 

The  cession  of  New  York  was  full  and  free  from  condi- 
tions. Connecticut  gave  the  soil,  but  not  the  jurisdiction.  J 
Virginia  reserved  Kentucky  and  demanded  to  be  guaranteed  its 
possession.  To  accept  on  such  terms  seemed  impossible,  and 
Congress  bade  a  committee  report  what  should  be  done.  In 
November  the  report  was  made,A  but  it  was  not  entered  on 
the  journals  till  the  following  May.  The  committee  approved 
the  cession  by  New  York,  advised  Congress  not  to  accept  that 
of  Virginia,  and  suggested  that  when  the  Western  territory 
was  acquired  it  should  be  cut  up  into  States  not  more  than 
one  hundred  and  thirty  miles  square,  that  the  States  be  laid 
out  in  townships  six  miles  square,  and  that  in  them  be  located 
the  bounty  lands  promised  to  the  officers  and  soldiers.  Q  A 
whole  year  passed  away  before  the  matter  was  considered ;  but 
public  interest  was  not  suffered  to  flag.  Another  pamphlet 
from  Thomas  Paine  proved  that  to  the  territory  west  of  the 
mountains  Virginia  had  no  valid  claim.  J  Again  a  petition 
from  Kentucky  called  on  Congress  to  form  a  Commonwealth 
beyond  the  Alleghenies  and  admit  it  into  the  Union.$ 

About  the  sources  of  the  Ohio  the  old  scheme  for  a  new 
State  was  again  revived  and  urged  with  fresh  vigor.  The 
final  settlement  of  the  boundary  dispute,  the  near  approach 
of  the  day  when  the  line  would  be  run,  taxes  gathered,  and 

*  October  10,  1780.  J  January  2,  1781. 

t  October  12,  1780.  #  February  12,  1781. 

I  This  cession  was  not  accepted. 

A  November  3,  1781.  Q  May  2,  1782. 

$  Plain  Facts :  being  an  Examination  into  the  Rights  of  the  Indian  Nations  of 
America  to  their  Respective  Countries,  and  a  Vindication  of  the  Grant  from  the 
Six  United  Nations  of  Indians  to  the  Proprietors  of  Indiana  against  the  Decision 
of  the  Legislature  of  Virginia,  together  with  Authentic  Documents  proving  that 
the  Territory  Westward  of  the  Allegheny  Mountains  never  belonged  to  Virginia, 
etc.  Philadelphia,  1781. 

$  Thomson  Papers,  August  27, 1782.  Collection  of  the  New  York  Historical 
Society  for  the  year  1878,  pp.  145-150. 

VOL.  III. — 8 


98  THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

law  enforced,  led  many  to  favor  the  idea  of  emigrating  and 
founding  a  new  State  on  the  Muskingum.*  With  this  in  view, 
anonymous  letters  were  written,!  handbills  passed  about,  and 
a  day  chosen  for  a  meeting  of  all  who  favored  the  scheme  at 
Wheeling.  ^  Excited  by  these  appeals,  the  people,  when  the 
Pennsylvania  assessors  came  to  take  the  rates,  drove  them  away.* 
When  surveyors  came  to  run  the  line,  they,  too,  were  attacked 
and  told  that  the  settlers  were  determined  to  have  a  State  of 
their  owrt  |  So  serious  did  the  movement  seem,  that  Penn- 
sylvania found  it  necessary  to  enact  a  law  forbidding  the  erec- 
tion of  a  new  State  within  her  borders.A  In  Congress  the 
petition  from  Kentucky  was  bitterly  denounced  by  the  dele- 
gates from  Virginia.  The  petitioners,  it  was  said,  were  sub- 
jects of  Virginia.  What  business,  then,  had  Congress  to  med- 
dle? None  of  the  rights  of  the  Crown  had  devolved  on 
Congress.  Congress  derived  its  rights  and  powers  from  the 
Confederation.  All  Crown  rights  and  all  Crown  property  had 
devolved  on  the  States.  They  were  answered,  and  answered 
with  spirit ;  but  no  action  was  taken  till  Theodoric  Bland,  a 
Congressman  from  Virginia,  moved  that  the  cession  of  his  State 
be  accepted.  His  motion  was  sent  to  a  committee,  and  in 
June  the  committee  recommended  Q  that  the  old  report  of 
1782  be  acted  on  before  the  new  motion  of  Mr.  Bland.  It 
was  thereupon  resolved  to  do  so,  and  so  much  as  concerned 
Virginia  was  sent  to  a  committee  of  five.  Well  knowing 
what  the  recommendation  would  be,  Bland  the  very  next  day 
made  a  new  motion  which  he  intended  should  be  embodied 
in  their  report.  This  was  that  when  the  cession  had  been 
accepted,  a  huge  tract  of  it  should  be  cut  into  districts  not 
more  than  two  degrees  of  latitude  by  three  degrees  of  longi- 
tude ;  that  each  district  should  be  parted  into  townships  and, 
when  its  population  numbered  twenty  thousand  souls,  be  ad- 
mitted into  the  Union  as  a  State.  Ten  thousand  acres  out  of 

*  General  Irvine  to  General  Washington,  Fort  Pitt,  April  20,  1782. 

f  Deposition  of  II.  H.  Brackenridge,  1782,  accusing  Dorscy  Pentecost  of  writing 
the  letters. 

J  General  Irvine  to  General  Washington,  Fort  Pitt,  April  20,  1 782. 

*  Christopher  Hays  to  President  Moore,  September  20,  1782.     Pennsylvania 
Archives,  vol.  ix,  p.  637.  A  Act  of  December  3,  1782. 

J  Ibid.,  Pennsylvania  Archives,  vol.  ix,  p.  637.       0  Junc  4>  1783. 


1783.  ARMY  OFFICERS  ASK  FOR  LAND.  99 

every  hundred  thousand  were  to  be  kept  by  Congress,  and  the 
proceeds  used  to  build  forts,  found  academies  and  seminaries, 
and,  if  possible,  build  and  equip  a  navy.  With  the  rest  was 
to  be  paid  the  arrears  due  to  the  soldiers  then  serving  in  the 
army  ;  the  arrears  due  to  those  who  had  served  in  the  army ; 
the  arrears  due  to  the  wives  of  soldiers  who  had  died ;  the 
commutation  and  the  bounty  promised  under  the  ordinance 
of  1776.  When  Secretary  Thomson  had  finished  reading  the 
motion,  Congress  sent  it  to  a  committee,  and  nothing  was  ever 
heard  of  it  again. 

But  the  land  question  was  not  neglected.  Before  the 
month  of  June  ended,  Congress  took  up  the  report  of  the 
Virginia  committee,  listened  to  the  protest  of  New  Jersey 
against  accepting  the  Virginia  cession,  and  received  a  petition 
from  two  hundred  and  eighty-six  officers  of  the  Continental 
army.  The  army  was  then  at  Newburg.  The  Quartermaster- 
General  was  Timothy  Pickering,  and  with  him  the  petition 
and  the  plan  which  lay  behind  it  seem  to  have  originated. 
The  paper  set  forth  that  the  signers  understood  there  was,  be- 
yond the  Ohio,  a  tract  of  land  to  which  no  State  made  any 
claim.  This  tract  they  believed  was  bounded  by  Lake  Erie, 
Pennsylvania,  the  river  Ohio,  a  meridian  twenty-four  miles 
west  of  the  mouth  of  the  Scioto  river,  and  by  the  Miami  of 
the  lakes.  Within  it  they  hoped  Congress  would  now  lay  off 
their  bounty  land,  make  it  a  colony,  and,  in  time,  admit  the 
colony  into  the  Union  as  a  State.  With  the  petition  came  a 
letter  from  Washington.  Whether  the  land  asked  for  be- 
longed to  any  State  he  did  not  know.  But  this  he  did  know : 
that  it  would  be  well  to  have  the  Northwest  settled,  and  that 
the  petitioners  were  the  very  men  and  the  present  the  very 
time  to  settle  it.  They  asked,  however,  what  could  not  be 
given.  Some  of  the  region  desired  belonged  to  Connecticut ; 
the  rest  was  owned  by  Virginia,  and  did  not  pass  under  the 
authority  of  Congress  till  March  of  the  year  following. 

The  report  of  the  committee  on  the  Virginia  cession,  so 
often  laid  aside,  was  now  taken  up  in  earnest.  As  it  was 
about  to  be  considered  for  the  last  time,*  Carroll,  of  Mary- 

*  September  13,  1788. 


100         THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

land,  moved  to  postpone  it,  and  consider  a  motion  of  his  own 
instead.  The  United  States,  he  maintained,  owned  the  "West- 
ern lands.  These  lands  were  needed  to  pay  bounties  promised 
to  the  soldiers  and  to  lessen  taxation  borne  by  the  people.  A 
committee  ought,  therefore,  to  be  appointed  to  report  on  the 
amount  of  territory  the  United  States  possessed ;  on  the  best 
place  for  making  one  or  more  States ;  and  on  the  establish- 
ment of  an  office  for  the  sale  of  land.  Once  more  Congress 
refused  to  change  its  policy ;  once  more  it  refused  to  touch 
the  land  till  the  States  made  acceptable  cessions,  and  resolved 
that  the  cession  of  Virginia  would  be  acceptable  when  the  re- 
quired guarantee  of  her  territory  was  stricken  out.  And  now 
Virginia  gave  way.  The  objectionable  condition  was  re- 
pealed ;  *  a  new  offer  was  made  and  accepted,  and  on  March 
first,  1784,  the  deed  was,  in  the  presence  of  Congress,  signed, 
sealed,  and  delivered  by  the  delegates. 

The  deed  bound  Congress  to  fulfil  six  important  engage- 
ments :  To  lay  out  the  area  into  States,  not  less  than  one  hun- 
dred nor  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  square.  To 
make  the  States  republican,  and  admit  them  to  full  member- 
ship in  the  Union.  To  confirm  the  land  titles  of  Frenchmen 
and  Canadians  living  in  the  territory,  and  of  the  settlers  at 
Kaskaskia  and  Yincennes.  To  set  apart  a  tract,  not  greater 
than  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  acres,  for  the  use  of  Gen- 
eral George  Rogers  Clarke  and  his  soldiers.  To  make  good, 
northwest  of  the  Ohio,  any  deficiency  in  the  lands  reserved 
southeast  of  the  Ohio,  for  the  use  of  the  Virginia  troops  in  the 
Continental  army.  To  dispose  of  the  rest  for  the  benefit  of 
the  States  in  common. 

Not  one  of  these  conditions  was  new.  All  were  in  the 
tender  of  1781 ;  all  were  acceptable  to  Congress.  Some,  in- 
deed, Congress  had  already  begun  to  carry  out.  For  six 
months  past  committees  had  been  busy  with  a  plan  for  the 
temporary  government  of  the  Northwest  territory,  and  on  the 
very  day  the  Virginia  delegates  signed,  sealed,  and  delivered 
their  deed  Congress  for  a  second  time  heard  the  committee's 
report.  As  it  came  from  their  hands  f  the  plan  applied  to  all 

*  January  2,  1781.  f  March  1,  1784. 


1785.  THE  ORDINANCE  OF  1785.  101 

the  territory  "  ceded  or  to  be  ceded  "  by  the  States,  from  the 
parallel  of  thirty-one  degrees  on  the  south  to  the  boundary  of 
British  America  on  the  north.  This  it  parted  into  States; 
named  ten  of  them  northwest  of  the  river  Ohio  ;  provided  for 
a  temporary  and  a  permanent  government;  laid  down  the 
principles  on  which  the  governments  were  to  rest ;  abolished 
slavery  after  1800 ;  and  denied  citizenship  to  any  man  who 
held  a  hereditary  title.  But  when  the  plan  took  shape  as  an 
ordinance  some  changes  appeared.*  It  still  applied  to  all  the 
Western  territory,  ceded  or  to  be  ceded.  But  the  names  of 
the  States  were  gone.  The  prohibition  against  slavery  was 
stricken  out.  No  restriction  was  placed  on  men  with  heredi- 
tary titles.  Three  grades  of  government  were  ordered.  "With 
the  first  the  numbers  of  the  people  had  nothing  to  do.  The 
people  of  any  State,  no  matter  what  their  numbers,  could, 
whenever  Congress  consented,  meet,  mark  out  the  bounds  of 
townships  and  counties,  choose  a  Legislature,  and  adopt  a 
Constitution  and  a  set  of  laws.  The  Constitution  must  be 
that  in  force  in  some  one  of  the  "  original  States,"  and  could 
not  be  altered.  The  laws  must  also  be  the  laws  of  some  one 
of  the  original  States,  and  could  be  altered  by  the  Legislature. 

The  government  of  the  second  grade  began  when  twenty 
thousand  free  inhabitants  dwelt  on  the  soil.  Then,  if  Congress 
consented,  a  convention  might  be  called,  a  Constitution  might 
be  framed,  and  a  government  of  the  people's  making  estab- 
lished. But,  in  framing  the  Constitution,  seven  great  princi- 
ples must  be  carefully  observed :  The  government  must  be 
republican.  The  State  must  never  leave  the  Union;  never 
meddle  with  the  primary  disposal  of  the  soil  by  Congress ; 
never  tax  lands  owned  by  the  United  States ;  never  tax  the 
lands  of  non-residents  higher  than  those  of  residents ;  be  sub- 
ject to  the  articles  of  Confederation  and  the  ordinances  of 
Congress ;  and  bear  a  part  of  the  Federal  debts  contracted  or 
to  be  contracted.  During  the  life  of  these  two  forms  of  gov- 
ernment each  State  was  to  have  the  right  to  send  one  delegate 
to  Congress,  where  he  could  debate,  but  never  cast  a  vote. 

The  third  grade  began  when  the  settlers  in  the  State  were 

*  April  23,  1784. 


102         THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvr. 

as  numerous  as  those  in  the  least  populous  of  the  original  thir- 
teen States.  Then  for  the  first  time  she  was  to  become  a 
member  of  the  Confederation,  might  send  any  number  of  dele- 
gates from  two  to  seven,  and  could  cast  a  vote  on  any  question 
that  came  before  the  Congress.  That  the  purpose  of  this  or- 
dinance might  not  be  misunderstood,  it  was  plainly  declared 
that  every  one  of  its  provisions  should  be  made  a  charter  of 
compact ;  that  the  compact  should  be  between  each  State  and 
the  United  States ;  that  it  should  be  in  force  the  moment  an 
acre  of  land  was  sold  in  the  State,  and  thenceforth  should  be 
unchangeable  save  by  consent  both  of  Congress  and  the  State. 
During  more  than  three  years  the  ordinance  had  a  place  in  the 
statute-books  as  a  law ;  yet,  during  that  time,  no  attempt  was 
made  to  execute  the  law.  No  State  boundary  was  ever 
marked  out.  No  authority  was  ever  given  to  any  band  of  set- 
tlers to  adopt  a  Constitution.  Once,  indeed,  an  application 
was  made.  Once,  indeed,  some  citizens  of  Pennsylvania  peti- 
tioned for  leave  to  buy  land  and  found  a  State  beyond  the 
Ohio  river.  But  leave  was  refused  ;  for  the  government  they 
proposed  to  set  up  was  military  in  form,  while  the  govern- 
ment Congress  was  pledged  to  establish  must,  they  were  told, 
be  republican  in  form.* 

Having  thus  decided  on  a  plan  for  the  government  of  the 
new  States,  Congress  now  went  on  to  consider  a  plan  for  the 
sale  of  land  in  the  new  States.  The  committee  charged  with 
the  work  were  prompt,  and  in  May  an  "  ordinance  for  locat- 
ing and  disposing  of  land  in  the  Western  territory  "  was  read 
a  second  time.f  A  vote  was  not  reached ;  further  considera- 
tion was  put  off,  and  the  whole  matter  neglected  for  a  year. 
When  read  the  second  time,  the  ordinance  provided  that  after 
the  Indian  title  had  been  extinguished  and  the  domain  laid 
off  into  States,  the  States  should  be  divided  into  "hundreds," 
and  the  "hundreds"  into  "lots."  A  "hundred"  was  to  be  a 
square  ten  geographical  miles  on  each  side,  and  one  hundred 
geographical  square  miles  in  area.  A  "lot"  was  to  be  one 
geographical  square  mile  in  area,  and  one  hundred,  duly  num- 

*  The  petition  is  to  be  found  in  Papers  of  Old  Congress,  vol.  ix,  No.  41. 
t  May  10,  1784. 


1785.  THE  INDIAN  BOUNDARY   LINE.  1Q3 

bered,  were  to  be  contained  in  a  "hundred."  There  were 
to  be  surveyors  for  each  district,  and  registers  for  each  State, 
responsible  to  Congress.  The  price  of  land  was  not  determined, 
but  it  was  to  be  paid  for  in  loan-office  certificates,  reduced  to 
specie  value  ;  in  certificates  of  liquidated  debts  of  the  United 
States ;  and  in  military  warrants  issued  under  the  old  ordi- 
nances of  Congress. 

At  the  foundation  of  the  plan  lay  the  principle  that  no 
land  was  to  be  sold  till  it  had  been  surveyed,  and  no  survey 
made  till  the  Indian  title  had  been  extinguished.  To  extin- 
guish the  Indian  title,  therefore,  was  most  important;  and, 
while  the  plan  was  yet  under  debate,  commissioners  were  ap- 
pointed to  treat  with  the  Indians.  The  first  treaty  was  made 
with  the  Six  Nations  at  Fort  Stanwix  in  the  autumn  of  1784.* 
In  it  the  Indians  drew  a  line  from  Lake  Ontario  to  Lake  Erie, 
from  Lake  Erie  to  the  north  boundary  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
along  the  Pennsylvania  boundary  to  the  Ohio.f  To  all  the 
land  west  of  this  line  they  declared  their  title  extinguished. 
But  Congress  had  yet  to  deal  with  the  actual  dwellers  on  the 
soil — with  the  Wyandots,  the  Delawares,  the  Chippewas,  the 
Ottawas — who  acknowledged  no  right  in  the  Six  Nations  to 
deed  away  their  lands.  The  commissioners  were  therefore 
bidden  to  treat  with  them,  and  did  so  at  Fort  Mclntosh 
in  1T85.J  In  that  treaty  the  sachems  drew  a  line  up  the 
Cuyahoga  river  from  Lake  Erie  to  the  portage,  westward 
across  Ohio  to  the  Maumee,  down  the  Maumee  to  the  lake, 
and  back  to  the  Cuyahoga.  All  within  these  bounds  was 
Indian  country ;  all  east,  south,  and  west  was  ceded  to  the 
United  States. 

The  Indian  title  having  been  thus  extinguished,  Congress 
went  seriously  to  work  on  the  plan  for  selling  the  land.  The 
report  of  1784  was  taken  up,  debated,  amended,  and  on  May 
twentieth*  the  first  ordinance  for  the  sale  of  public  domain 

*  October  22,  1784. 

f  From  Johnston's  Landing  Place,  on  Lake  Ontario,  southerly  to  the  mouth  of 
Buffalo  Creek,  on  Lake  Erie,  keeping  four  miles  south  of  the  carrying  path  be- 
tween the  lakes.  Thence  the  line  ran  south  to  the  north  boundary  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, then  west  and  south  along  the  boundary  to  the  Ohio. 

J  January  21st.  *  May  20,  1785. 


104:         THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  OHAP.  xvi. 

became  law.  Then  the  geographical  miles  had  given  place  to 
English  miles ;  the  hundreds  to  townships ;  the  lots  to  sec- 
tions, and  the  foundation  of  the  present  land  system  was  laid. 

"No  land  was  to  be  sold  until  it  had  been  surveyed,  and 
'  when  surveyed  was  to  be  parted  into  square  pieces,  bounded 
by  meridians  and  parallels  of  latitude.  The  largest  square  was 
to  be  six  miles  on  each  side,  was  to  contain  thirty-six  sections, 
and  was  called  a  township.  The  smallest  piece  was  to  be  one 
mile  on  each  side,  was  to  contain  six  hundred  and  forty  acres, 
and  was  called  a  section.* 

The  townships  were  to  be  arranged  one  over  the  other  in 
a  north  and  south  direction,  and  numbered  from  south  to  north. 
To  these  tiers  was  given  the  name  of  ranges.  The  geog- 
rapher was  to  begin  the  first  range  of  townships  where  the 
Ohio  river  is  met  by  the  western  boundary  line  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. The  second  range  was  to  lie  west  of  the  first,  and 
touch  it ;  the  third  west  of  the  second,  and  the  fourth  west  of 
the  third.  When  seven  ranges  had  thus  been  laid  out,  with 
township  number  one  of  each  range  resting  on  the  Ohio  river, 
maps  of  them  were  to  be  sent  to  the  Board  of  Treasury.  The 
Secretary  of  "War  was  then  to  draw  by  lot  one  seventh  of  the 
whole  number  of  townships  and  keep  them  for  the  use  of  the 
officers  and  soldiers  of  the  Continental  army.  The  rest  were 
then  to  be  drawn  by  lot  by  the  Board  of  Treasury  in  the 
names  of  the  thirteen  States. 

How  much  each  State  should  receive  was  to  depend  en- 
tirely on  the  quota  assigned  her  in  the  last  preceding  requisi- 
tion. If  her  quota  was  one  fifth,  or  one  tenth,  or  one  twen- 
tieth of  the  requisition,  she  was  to  receive  a  fifth,  or  a  tenth, 
or  the  twentieth  of  the  land. 

The  drawing  over,  maps,  showing  the  townships  and  parts 
of  townships  that  had  fallen  to  each  State,  were  to  be  sent  to 


*  The  sections  of  each  township  are  numbered  from  one  to  thirty-six.  Num- 
ber one  is  in  the  northeast  corner  of  the  township,  whence  the  numbers  run 
west  till  six  is  reached  in  the  northwest  corner.  Section  seven  is  immediately 
under  section  six,  and  the  numbers  then  run  east  till  twelve  is  reached.  Twelve 
lies  immediately  under  section  one,  and  under  twelve  is  thirteen,  whence  the 
numbers  once  more  run  westward.  Following  this  plan,  thirty-one  is  in  the 
southwest  corner  and  thirty-six  in  the  southeast. 


1785.  LAND   ORDINANCE  OF  1785.  105 

the  loan  officer  of  that  State.  The  loan  officer  was  then  to 
fix  on  a  day  and  a  place  of  sale  at  public  auction ;  advertise 
the  sale  in  at  least  one  newspaper;  put  up  handbills  at  the 
court-houses,  the  chief  taverns,  "  and  other  noted  places "  in 
each  county ;  and  continue  this  for  not  less  than  two  months 
and  for  not  more  than  six  before  the  time  of  the  auction. 

When  the  day  came  he  was  to  begin  by  offering  some  of 
the  land  in  whole  townships,  and  some  in  whole  sections.  If 
the  piece  of  land  were  an  odd-numbered  township  in  an  odd- 
numbered  range,  or  an  even-numbered  township  in  an  even- 
numbered  range,  he  must  sell  it  entire  or  not  at  all.  Even- 
numbered  townships  in  odd  ranges,  and  odd  townships  in  even 
ranges,  he  might  offer  in  sections  of  six  hundred  and  forty 
acres.  No  bids  would  be  received  at  less  than  one  dollar  the 
acre,  and  no  credit  could  be  given.  The  money  must  be  paid 
on  the  spot,  and  must  be  specie  or  loan-office  certificates  re- 
duced to  a  specie  value.  There  were,  however,  in  each  town- 
ship five  pieces  of  land  which  the  loan  officer  could  not  sell 
at  any  price,  for  Congress  reserved  sections  eight,  eleven, 
twenty-six,  and  twenty-nine,  and  set  apart  number  sixteen  for 
purposes  of  education. 

While  the  ordinance  was  still  being  debated,  copies  were 
sent  for  criticism  to  men  deeply  interested  in  Western  affairs. 
One  is  known  to  have  reached  Timothy  Pickering,  who  in- 
stantly replied.  He  noticed,  he  wrote  Rufus  King,  that  no 
provision  was  made  for  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  nor  even  for 
schools  and  academies.  Schools,  he  thought,  should  at  least 
be  provided  for.  King  was  a  member  of  the  Grand  Commit- 
tee to  whom  the  ordinance  was  referred,  and  when  the  report 
was  made,  both  schools  and  religion  were  provided  for.  The 
central  section  of  each  township  was  to  be  set  apart  for  the 
maintenance  of  public  schools,  and  the  one  immediately  next 
for  purposes  of  religion.  This,  it  was  explained,  would  serve 
to  induce  people  of  the  same  religious  persuasion  to  emigrate 
in  bodies.  Congress,  however,  thought  not;  struck  out  the 
township  for  religious  purposes,  but  suffered  that  for  education 
to  remain. 

The  ordinance  was  silent  on  the  subject  of  squatters,  or,  as 
they  were  then  called,  intruders,  on  the  Congress  lands.  But 


106         THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xn. 

Congress  was  not  ignorant  of  their  existence,  nor  careless  of 
their  actions.  A  proclamation  had  already  been  put  forth 
against  them.  Asserting  the  sole  right  to  regulate  trade  with 
the  Indians,  Congress  forbade  any  persons  to  settle  on  lands 
claimed  by  the  Indians,  or  take  any  gift  or  make  any  pur- 
chase of  soil  from  them.  No  heed  was  given  to  the  procla- 
mation, and,  of  the  many  charges  brought  against  the  whites 
by  the  Indians,  during  the  treaty  negotiation  at  Fort  Mcln- 
tosh,  the  chief  was  that  of  entering  on  and  seizing  their  lands. 
The  Commissioners  promised  redress,  and,  before  the  treaty 
was  three  days  old,  bade  Colonel  Harmar  see  to  it  that  every 
intruder  was  driven  off.*  It  was  high  time,  for  the  more  reck- 
less and  defiant  were  even  then  making  ready  to  form  a  new 
State.  One  among  them  was  a  'man  named  John  Emerson, 
and  by  him  a  broadside  was  soon  sent  out  to  the  settlers.  In 
this  he  denied  that  Congress  could  sell  the  land,  denied  that 
Congress  could  drive  settlers  off  the  land,  asserted  their 
right  to  settle,  and  called  for  a  choice  of  delegates  to  a  conven- 
tion to  form  a  constitution  for  a  State.  The  elections  were 
to  be  held  on  April  tenth,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Miami,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Scioto,  on  the  Muskingum,  and  at  the  house  of 
a  well-known  intruder  named  Jonas  Menzons.  The  Conven- 
tion was  to  meet  ten  days  later  at  the  mouth  of  the  Scioto.f 

*  "  Surveying  or  settling  the  lands  not  within  the  limits  of  any  particular 
State  being  forbidden  by  the  United  States,  in  Congress  assembled,  the  com- 
mander will  employ  such  force  as  he  may  judge  necessary  in  driving  off  persons 
attempting  to  settle  on  the  lands  of  the  United  States."  Commissioners  of  In- 
dian Affairs  to  Colonel  Harmar,  January  24,  1785;  St.  Clair  Papers,  vol.  ii,  p.  3. 

f  ADVERTISEMENT. 

March  12, 1785. 

Notice  is  hereby  given  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  west  side  of  the  Ohio  river, 
that  there  is  to  be  an  election  for  the  choosing  of  members  of  the  convention  for 
the  framing  a  constitution  for  the  governing  of  the  inhabitants,  the  election  to  be 
held  on  the  tenth  day  of  April  next  ensuing,  viz. :  one  election  to  be  held  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Miami  river,  and  one  to  be  held  at  the  mouth  of  the  Scioto  river, 
and  one  on  the  Muskingum  river,  and  one  at  the  dwelling-house  of  Jonas  Men- 
zons ;  the  members  to  be  chosen  to  meet  at  the  mouth  of  the  Scioto  on  the  twen- 
tieth day  of  the  same  month. 

I  do  certify  that  all  mankind,  agreeable  to  every  constitution  formed  in 
America,  have  an  undoubted  right  to  pass  into  every  vacant  country  and  there  to 
form  their  constitution,  and  that  from  the  confederation  of  the  whole  United 


1785.  SQUATTERS  DRIVEN  OFF.  107 

But,  before  that  day  came,  one  of  the  leaders  was  in  irons, 
many  families  were  dispossessed,  and  many  more  humbly 
asking  leave  to  stay.  Late  in  March,  Colonel  Harmar  had 
sent  Ensign  Armstrong  with  a  force  of  twenty  men  to  exe- 
cute the  orders  of  the  Commissioners.  Armstrong  went  as 
far  as  Wheeling,  drove  off  the  intruders  at  Little  Beaver,  at 
Yellow  Creek,  at  Mingo  Bottom,  at  Norristown,  at  Mercers- 
town,  and  opposite  "Wheeling,  and  brought  to  Fort  Mclntosh 
an  exaggerated  report  of  settlements  as  far  south  as  the  Scioto. 
Not  a  bottom,  he  declared,  from  Wheeling  to  the  Scioto,  but 
had  at  least  one  family.  There  were,  he  was  assured,  three 
hundred  families  at  the  falls  of  the  Hockhocking ;  as  many 
more  were  on  the  Muskingum.  Fifteen  hundred  settlers  could 
be  counted  on  the  Scioto  and  Miami.  And  still  they  were 
coming  in  forties  and  fifties.  Fleeing  from  justice,  lawless, 
bold,  defiant,  they  would,  unless  driven  out,  fill  the  country 
with  a  banditti  whose  acts  would  disgrace  human  nature.* 

His  report  was  sent  by  Harmar  to  the  President  of  Con- 
gress, and  was  by  him  probably  laid  before  that  body.  Be 
this  as  it  may,  Congress  on  the  fifteenth  of  June  passed  an 
ordinance  regarding  intruders,  instructed  the  Board  of  Treas- 
ury to  stop  the  settlement  of  unauthorized  persons  on  the  unsold 
lands  of  the  United  States ;  gave  any  two  of  the  Commission- 
ers of  the  Treasury  power  to  call  on  the  Secretary  of  War  for 
troops  to  drive  off  squatters ;  commanded  the  Secretary  of 
War  to  march  troops  wherever  the  Commissioners  wished  ; 
and,  in  a  proclamation,  warned  persons  already  there  to  remove 
at  once  with  their  families  and  their  goods,  f  By  this  time  a 
second  letter  from  Colonel  Harmar  had  reached  Congress.:}: 

States,  Congress  is  not  empowered  to  forbid  them ;  neither  is  Congress  empow- 
ered from  that  confederation  to  make  any  sale  of  the  uninhabited  lands  to  pay 
the  public  debts,  which  is  to  be  a  tax  levied  and  lifted  by  authority  of  the  Legis- 
lature of  each  State.  JOHN  EMEKSON. 

*  St.  Clair  Papers,  vol.  ii,  pp.  3,  4. 

f  Journals  of  Congress,  June  15,  1785. 

$  "The  Honorable  the  Commissioners  of  Indian  Affairs,  previous  to  their 
departure,  left  me  instructions  to  drive  off  all  surveyors  or  settlers  on  the  lands 
of  the  United  States,  in  consequence  of  which  a  party  has  been  detached  who 
drove  them  off  as  far  as  seventy  miles  from  this  post.  The  number  lower  down 
the  river  is  immense,  and  unless  Congress  enters  into  immediate  measures  it  will 


108         THE  USES  MADE   OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

In  it  he  again  urged  them  not  to  suffer  the  squatters  along 
the  Muskingum  bottoms  to  go  unmolested.  The  warning  was 
heeded ;  an  order  was  passed  commanding  him  to  take  his  post 
on  the  Ohio  anywhere  between  the  Miami  and  the  Muskin- 
gum ;  *  and  in  September  a  force  set  out  to  build  Fort  Harmar 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Muskingum  river.  As  they  passed  down 
the  Ohio  valley  they  burned  every  cabin  they  saw,  and  drove 
the  settlers  into  Kentucky  and  Virginia.  A  second  detachment, 
bent  upon  a  like  errand,  went  further  yet  and  put  up  Fort 
Finney  at  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Miami.  But  the  intruders 
were  not  overawed.  Year  after  year  they  returned,  year  after 
year  they  were  driven  away.  In  the  summer  of  1786  numbers 
of  men  were  found  twenty  miles  north  of  the  Ohio  staking 
out  claims  and  establishing  tomahawk  rights  by  blazing  trees,  f 
In  1787  twelve  cabins  were  burned  and  crops  destroyed  at 
Mingo  Bottom.  When  Harmar  made  his  tour  through  the 
Northwest  during  the  summer  of  that  same  year  he  found 
at  La  Belle  Fontaine,  at  Grand  Ruisseau,  at  Cahokia,  at  New 
Design,  settlements  where  not  one  man  had  any  legal  title 
to  the  soil.  Copies  of  the  proclamation  which  he  scattered 
among  them  created  great  alarm,  and  they  sent  back  with  him 
an  agent  laden  with  petitions  to  Congress.:}: 

Having  passed  the  Land  Ordinance  of  1785,  Congress  lost 
no  time  in  enforcing  it.  Indeed,  before  a  week  passed,  thir- 
teen surveyors,  one  from  each  State,  were  chosen  to  lay  out 
the  ranges.  Their  orders  were  to  go  to  the  north  bank  of  the 
Ohio  river,  find  the  point  due  north  of  the  western  end  of  the 
southern  boundary  of  Pennsylvania,  and  there  begin  a  "  ge- 
ographer's line,"  running  due  west  across  the  territory.  Hav- 
ing obtained  some  soldiers  from  General  Harmar,  the  party 
set  out,  found  the  point,  and  ran  the  line  due  west  over  the 
Ohio,  setting  up  a  post  every  six  miles  to  mark  the  townships' 

be  impossible  to  prevent  the  lands  being  settled.  ...  It  is  out  of  my  power  to 
sweep  them  further  than  the  distance  of  one  hundred  and  twenty,  or  one  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  from  hence."  Harmar  to  Secretary  of  War,  June  1,  1785;  Har- 
mar Manuscripts,  St.  Clair  Papers,  vol.  ii,  p.  6. 

*  Journals  of  Congress,  1785. 

f  Harmar  to  Secretary  of  War,  July  12,  1786. 

J  Harmar  to  Secretary  of  War,  November  24,  1787;  St.  Clair  Papers,  vol.  ii, 
pp.  30,  81. 


1787.  SALE  OF  LAND.  109 

corners.  The  "  geographer's  line,"  as  it  is  still  called,  was 
forty-two  miles  long,  for  the  law  provided  that  no  more  than 
seven  ranges  should  be  laid  out.  The  end  of  the  line  reached, 
the  party  turned  due  south  and  made  for  the  Ohio.  Little 
more  was  done  that  year,  for  the  Indians  showed  signs  of  hos- 
tility. But  so  much  had  been  done  that  in  the  spring  of  1787 
the  Board  of  Treasury  was  instructed  to  report  a  plan  for 
selling  the  land  already  surveyed.  The  report  was  made  in 
April,  and  a  new  ordinance  passed.  The  Secretary  of  "War  was 
still  to  draw  one  seventh  to  be  reserved  for  the  Continental  line. 
Drawings  were  still  to  be  made  in  the  names  of  the  States. 
But  the  loan  officers  were  no  longer  to  act  as  land  auction- 
eers. The  townships,  after  being  advertised  in  one  paper 
in  each  State  for  five  months,  were  to  be  sold  at  auction  at 
the  place  where  Congress  sat,  and  Congress  then  sat  at  New 
York.  The  lowest  price  was  still  one  dollar,  but  only  one 
third  was  to  be  paid  down.  The  rest  might  be  paid  after 
three  months. 

The  passage  of  a  new  ordinance  for  the  sale  of  land  was 
speedily  followed  by  another  for  the  government  of  the  people 
who  should  buy  the  land.  Proceedings  leading  to  this  were 
begun  by  James  Monroe,  and  sprang  directly  from  what  he 
heard  and  saw  during  a  short  trip  to  the  West.  Urged  by  a 
strong  desire  to  be  present  at  an  Indian  treaty,  he  set  out  in 
the  winter  of  1786  for  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Miami.  At 
Fort  Pitt  he  fell  in  with  the  Commissioners,  and  with  them 
started  down  the  Ohio.  The  weather  was  cold ;  the  water  was 
shallow;  the  journey  was  comfortless  and  slow.  At  Lime- 
stone, therefore,  he  gave  up  the  trip,  and  travelled  back  to 
Richmond  through  Kentucky.  The  sights  which  he  saw,  the 
men  he  talked  with,  the  answers  given  to  the  questions  which 
he  asked  on  every  hand,  satisfied  him  that  the  West  was  mis- 
understood. Much  of  the  land  he  believed  was  miserably  poor. 
Great  stretches  of  it  along  the  lakes  were  not  worth  cultivat- 
ing. The  plains  of  what  is  now  Illinois  he  seems  to  have  con- 
sidered a  desert,  without  so  much  as  a  bush  upon  it.  To  cut 
such  a  region  into  ten  States  would,  he  thought,  be  unwise 
for  reasons  both  economic  and  political.  Some  would  be  all 
poor  land ;  some  all  rich  land.  Some  would  have  no  frontage 


110        THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

on  the  lakes ;  others  would  have  no  frontage  on  the  Ohio. 
Some  would  have  no  navigable  rivers;  others  would  have 
many  such  streams,  and  could  control  them  entirely.  But 
what  was  more  important  still,  the  people  would  be  joined  by 
no  political  ties,  by  no  common  interest,  to  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment. They  would,  however,  be  united  by  a  strong  "West- 
ern interest,  and  would,  when  all  were  admitted  to  the  Union, 
rule  the  country.  Ten  States  were  too  many.  Five  would  be 
plenty. 

Convinced  that  for  these  reasons  the  ordinance  of  1784 
needed  mending,  Monroe  was  no  sooner  back  in  Congress  than 
he  had  the  whole  question  of  dividing  the  Western  territory 
into  States  sent  to  a  Grand  Committee.  Two  reports  were 
made.*  By  the  resolutions  of  October  tenth,  1780,  Congress 
had  promised  to  lay  out  the  Western  lands  into  States  of  not 
less  than  one  hundred,  nor  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  square.  Virginia  had  accepted  this  pledge,  had  put  it 
in  her  deed  of  cession,  and  had  therein  solemnly  bound  Con- 
gress to  carry  it  out.  When,  therefore,  the  ordinance  of  April, 
1784,  was  framed,  the  Northwest  territory  was  cut  into  States 
as  nearly  as  possible  of  the  required  size,  and  these,  it  hap- 
pened, were  ten  in  number.  Before  this  number  could  be 
changed,  two  things  must  be  accomplished  :  Virginia  must 
alter  her  deed  of  cession ;  Congress  must  repeal  the  ordinance 
of  1780.  Having  decided  what  it  was  necessary  to  do,  the 
committee  urged  that  it  be  done.  But,  before  their  reports 
were  even  discussed,  a  new  and  unlooked-for  turn  was  given 
to  the  affair  by  a  motion  of  Nathan  Dane,  of  Massachusetts. 

If  there  was  to  be  a  new  division  of  the  territory,  there 
might  as  well,  he  seems  to  have  thought,  be  a  government. 
No  such  thing  existed.  The  ordinance  of  1784  provided,  in- 
deed, that  there  should  be  civil  governments.  It  laid  down 
the  principles  on  which  they  should  be  formed,  but  it  left  the 
time  for  establishing  them  to  be  chosen  by  Congress  in  the 
future.  In  the  opinion  of  Dane,  this  time  had  come ;  and, 
thinking  so,  he  asked  for  a  committee  to  frame  a  temporary 
plan  of  government  for  the  Western  States.  Monroe  was 

*  Papers  of  Old  Congress.    Reports  of  Committees,  vol.  xxx. 


1787.  TERRITORIAL  GOVERNMENT.  HI 

chairman,  and  his  hand  drew  the  report  that  was  read  to  Con- 
gress a  few  weeks  later.*  The  Northwest  territory  ought,  the 
committee  said,  to  be  cut  into  not  less  than  two  nor  more  than 
five  States.  Temporary  government  in  each  of  these  should 
be  administered  by  a  governor,  a  council  of  five,  a  secretary, 
and  a  court  of  five  judges,  all  appointed  by  Congress.  When 
a  certain  population  had  been  reached,  representative  govern- 
ment should  begin,  and  a  House  of  Representatives  should, 
with  the  Governor  and  the  Council,  make  a  Legislature.  Then 
a  delegate  might  be  sent  to  Congress. 

Two  daysf  after  hearing  the  report  Congress  quieted  a 
second  of  Monroe's  fears,  and  declared  that  the  navigable 
waters  leading  to  the  Mississippi  and  the  St.  Lawrence,  and 
all  the  carrying  places  between  them,  should  be  common  high- 
ways ;  that  no  tax,  no  impost,  no  duty,  should  ever  be  laid 
upon  them,  but  that  they  should  be  forever  free  to  all  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States. 

And  now  the  plan  went  through  the  delays  which  in  the 
old  Congress  attended  every  important  measure.  In  July 
it  was  recommitted ;  \  in  September  it  was  again  reported,* 
discussed,  and  postponed.  ||  In  April  it  once  more  came  up,A 
was  read  a  second  time  in  May,^  and  a  day  fixed  for  the  third 
reading.^  Just  a  year  had  then  passed  away  since  Monroe 
presented  his  rude  outline  ;  but  the  months  had  not  been 
wasted.  Debate  and  delay  did  their  work,  and  on  the  May 
morning  when  the  Massachusetts  delegates  called  for  the  final 
reading,  the  outline  of  Monroe  had  become  a  well-digested 
scheme  for  the  government  of  the  Western  territory.  But  the 
vote  was  not  taken.  The  Ohio  Company  had,  the  day  before, 
presented  their  petition  for  a  private  purchase  of  land.J  Con- 
sideration was,  in  consequence,  put  off,  and,  before  it  could  be 
resumed,  so  many  members  had  left  New  York  to  attend  the 
Constitutional  Convention  at  Philadelphia,  that  Congress,  for 
want  of  a  quorum,  did  no  business  till  July  fourth.  The 

*  May  10,  1786.  \  September  2(»,  1786. 
f  May  12,  1786.                                                      A  April  26,  1787. 

t  July  13,  1786.  0  Ma7  9»  i?87- 

*  September  19,  1786.  j  May  10,  1787. 

t  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,  vol.  i,  pp.  505-510. 


112         THE  USES  MADE   OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

sittings  resumed,  the  ordinance  was  taken  up,*  amended  and 
passed,  and,  in  time,  became  famous  as  that  of  17SY.  f 

Massachusetts  meanwhile  had  made  her  cession  ;  ^  the  offer 
of  Connecticut  had  been  altered  and  accepted,  *  so  that  the 
ordinance  applied  to  every  foot  of  territory  from  the  "  tri- 
angle "  in  Pennsylvania  f  to  the  Mississippi  River  ;  from  the 
Ohio  to  the  boundary  line  which  parted  us  from  Canada. 

For  Governor  of  the  Territory,  Congress  selected  Arthur 
St.  Clair.  As  Secretary  they  gave  him  Winthrop  Sargent. 
The  judges  were  Samuel  Holden  Parsons,  James  "W.  Yarnum, 


*  July  9,  1787.  f  JulJ  18> 

|  November  13,  1784.  Accepted  by  Congress  April  19,  1785.  The  text  of 
the  ordinance  will  be  found  in  the  Journals  of  Congress,  July  13,  1787  ;  in  the 
Statutes  at  Large  of  the  United  States,  edition  1845,  pp.  50,  51  ;  in  Donaldson's 
Public  Domain,  pp.  153-156  ;  St.  Clair  Papers,  vol.  ii,  p.  612  ;  Tucker's  History 
of  the  United  States,  vol.  i,  Appendix  ;  Hough's  American  Constitutions,  vol.  ii, 
pp.  144-148  ;  Life  of  Manasseh  Cutler,  Appendix  D  ;  Cooper  and  Fenton's  Ameri- 
can Politics  ;  Poore's  Federal  and  State  Constitutions,  Colonial  Charters,  and  other 
Organic  Laws,  Part  I,  pp.  429-432  ;  Albach's  Annals  of  the  West,  p.  466  ;  Duer's 
Constitutional  Jurisprudence,  pp.  512-520;  Andrews's  Manual  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, Appendix  XIII  ;  Clusky's  Political  Text-Book  or  Encyclopaedia,  pp.  469-472  ; 
Preston's  Documents  relating  to  American  History,  pp.  241-250  ;  Tribune  Al- 
manac for  1857  ;  Curtis's  History  of  the  Constitution,  vol.  i,  p.  802. 

For  a  discussion  of  the  claims  to  authorship  of  the  ordinance,  see  Dane's 
Abridgment  of  American  Law,  edition  1824,  vol.  vii,  p.  389  ;  Webster's  Speech 
on  Foot's  Resolution,  January  20,  1830  ;  Debates  of  Congress,  or  Webster's 
Works  ;  Dane's  Abridgment,  1830,  vol.  ix,  Appendix,  pp.  74-76,  where  his 
claim  to  authorship  is  fully  stated  ;  The  Part  taken  by  Essex  County  in  the  Or- 
ganization and  Settlement  of  the  Northwest  Territory.  Essex  Institute  Collec- 
tions, vol.  xxv,  1888.  For  the  claims  of  Cutler,  see  Life,  Journal,  and  Corre- 
spondence of  Rev.  Manasseh  Cutler,  LL.  D.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  367,  368  ;  The  Legislative 
History  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  John  M.  Merriam,  American  Antiquarian  So- 
ciety Proceedings  ;  The  Oration  of  George  F.  Hoar,  delivered  at  Marietta,  April 
7,  1888;  Oration  of  Edward  Everett  Hale,  delivered  at  Marietta;  Address  of 
William  F.  Poole  before  the  American  Historical  Association,  December  26,  1888. 
The  best  statement  of  the  matter  is  The  Ordinance  of  1787,  by  F.  D.  Stone, 
Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History  and  Biography,  1889. 

*  Deed  executed  September  13,  1786.     Cession  made  May,  1786.     Accepted 
by  Congress,  September  14,  1786. 

I  When  New  York  drew  her  western  boundary  a  triangular  piece  of  land 
was  left,  bounded  by  the  west  line  of  New  York,  the  north  line  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Lake  Erie.  This  tract,  sometimes  known  as  the  "  triangle  "  and  sometimes 
as  the  "  Erie  Purchase,"  was  ceded  alike  by  New  York  and  Massachusetts,  had  an 
area  of  315'91  square  miles,  and  was  sold  by  the  United  States  to  Pennsylvania, 
March  3,  1792,  for  $151,640.25. 


1788.  CRIMINAL  CODE   OF  THE   NORTHWEST.  H3 

and  John  Cleves  Symmes.  In  July,  1788,  these  officials, 
except  Judge  Symmes,  assembled  at  Fort  Harmar,  within 
the  range  of  whose  guns  the  Ohio  Company  were  laying  out 
the  town  of  Marietta.  There,  on  the  fifteenth  of  the  month, 
St.  Clair,  in  the  presence  of  the  Secretary,  the  judges,  the 
garrison,  and  the  handful  of  settlers,  read  his  credentials  and 
proclaimed  the  Government  of  the  Northwest  Territory  estab- 
lished. A  county  was  now  marked  out.  A  Court  of  Com- 
mon Pleas  and  a  Court  of  Quarter  Sessions  were  opened,  and 
a  code  of  laws  made  public. 

To  make  the  laws  public  was  no  easy  matter,  for  no  such 
thing  as  a  printing  press  could  be  found  nearer  than  Pittsburg 
or  Lexington.  Copies  were  therefore  written  out  in  long  hand 
and  posted  wherever  it  seemed  likely  they  would  be  seen  by 
the  largest  number  of  people.  The  man  who  pulled  down  such 
a  copy  was  to  be  put  in  the  stocks  for  three  hours,  fined  the  cost 
of  replacing  it,  and  shut  up  in  the  jail  till  the  fine  was  paid.  A 
like  punishment  awaited  those  who  defaced  a  proclamation  of 
the  Governor,  or  destroyed  a  notice  of  the  banns  of  matrimony, 
or  the  description  of  a  stray  cow.  The  whole  Criminal  Code 
as  framed  by  St.  Clair  and  the  judges  was  based  on  these  prin- 
ciples. ~No  means  for  the  suppression  of  crime  seemed  to 
them  so  effective  as  fines,  the  lash,  the  pillory,  and  the  stocks. 
The  drunkard  was  fined  five  dimes  for  the  first  offence,  a  dol- 
lar for  the  second,  and,  if  he  could  not  pay,  sat  in  the  stocks 
for  one  hour.  The  forger  stood  in  the  pillory  for  three. 
Thirty-nine  stripes  were  allotted  to  those  who  robbed  a  house, 
or  broke  into  a  shop,  or  bore  false  witness  against  their  neigh- 
bors. Were  the  burglar  armed,  he  was  to  suffer,  in  addition, 
the  loss  of  all  his  property,  and  spend  forty  years  in  jail. 
The  common  thief  must  give  up  twice  the  value  of  the  goods 
he  stole ;  should  he  have  no  property,  the  Sheriff  might  sell 
his  labor  for  seven  years.  To  burden  the  community  with  the 
support  of  the  criminal  formed  no  part  of  the  Governor's 
policy.  Long  imprisonment  for  debt  was  unknown.  On  the 
second  day  of  the  next  session  after  commitment,  the  debtor 
must  be  again  brought  into  Court.  Should  he  still  be  unable 
to  pay,  the  creditor  might  have  him  for  a  term  of  years: 
seven,  if  a  bachelor  under  forty ;  five,  if  a  married  man  under 

TOL.  III. — 9 


THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

thirty-six.  Should  the  creditor  refuse  to  take  him,  the  debtor 
went  free.  Liberty  obtained  in  any  other  way  was,  in  the  eye 
of  the  law,  to  be  ascribed  to  the  negligence  of  the  Sheriff,  or 
the  weakness  of  the  jail,  or  the  help  of  persons  outside.  "Were 
the  Sheriff  to  blame,  he  must  take  the  place  of  the  escaped 
offender,  assume  all  the  debts,  and  pay  all  the  fines  for  which 
the  criminal  was  imprisoned.  Were  the  jail  at  fault,  the  debts 
and  fines  were  assessed  on  the  county.  Did  some  one  other 
than  the  Sheriff  have  a  hand  in  the  escape,  he  became  heir  to 
the  sentence  imposed  on  the  fugitive.  He  received  all  the 
lashes ;  he  stood  in  the  pillory ;  he  sat  in  the  stocks ;  or,  if 
the  sentence  was  that  of  death,  stood  for  hours  under  the 
gallows  with  a  rope  about  his  neck.  Children  who  disobeyed 
their  parents,  servants  who  disobeyed  their  masters,  might,  if 
a  justice  of  the  peace  approved,  be  sent  to  jail  till,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  law,  they  were  humbled.  For  a  child  who  struck 
a  parent,  or  a  servant  who  struck  a  master,  the  law  decreed  ten 
stripes.  Cursing,  swearing,  and  lewd  speaking  were  forbidden, 
not  punished.  In  strange  contrast  with  the  severity  of  the 
code  in  general  was  the  mildness  of  one  law  in  particular.  It 
was  taken  bodily  from  the  Kentucky  statute-book,  and  con- 
tained a  list  of  crimes  at  that  time  only  too  prevalent  in  front- 
ier communities.  Whoever,  it  prescribed,  on  purpose,  or  of 
malice,  by  lying  in  wait,  should  unlawfully  cut  out  or  disable 
the  tongue,  put  out  an  eye,  slit  or  bite  off  the  nose,  the  ear, 
the  lip,  or  cut  off  or  disable  any  limb,  or  member,  or  on  pur- 
pose pull  or  put  out  an  eye  while  fighting,  should  be  impris- 
oned not  more  than  six  months,  or  fined  not  less  than  fifty  dol- 
lars. "Were  the  fine  not  paid,  the  Court  could  sell  the  offender 
to  service  for  five  years,  the  buyer  to  provide  food  and  raiment. 
Selling  to  service  for  a  term  of  years  was  quite  legal,  for  the 
ordinance  of  1787,  while  it  prohibited  negro  slavery,  expressly 
provided  for  slavery  in  punishment  of  crimes.* 

Some  of  these  laws  were  taken,  as  the  ordinance  provided 
all  should  foe,  from  the  statute-books  of  the  States,  and  for 
this  purpose  the  favorite  States  were  Massachusetts,  Connecti- 

*  "  Article  VI.  There  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  in  the 
said  territory  otherwise  than  in  the  punishment  of  crimes  whereof  the  party  shall 
have  been  duly  convicted." 


1788.  LAND  SALES  IN  THE  NORTHWEST.  115 

cut,  and  Kentucky.  But  others  seem  to  have  been  made  by 
the  Governor  and  Judges.  They  were,  therefore,  null  and 
void,  and,  had  Congress  done  its  duty,  would  have  been  set 
aside. 

The  passage  of  the  ordinance  was  quickly  followed  by  the 
cession  of  the  strip  owned  by  South  Carolina,*  by  the  tender 
of  the  region  claimed  by  Georgia,  f  and  by  a  great  demand 
for  land.  Before  January  first,  1788,  one  million  five  hun- 
dred thousand  acres  had  been  sold  to  the  Ohio  Company,^ 
three  millions  and  a  half  to  the  Scioto  Company,  one  million 
more  to  John  Cleves  Symmes,  and  the  petitions  of  Royal  Flint 
and  Joseph  Parker  for  two  million  acres  on  the  Ohio  and  the 
Wabash,  and  one  million  on  the  Mississippi  and  the  Illinois, 
had  been  rejected. 

Within  the  ranges  all  sales  had  stopped,  and  it  seemed  not 
unlikely  that  many  a  month  would  go  by  before  another  sec- 
tion would  be  sold.  Congress,  in  its  greed,  had  overreached 
itself.  To  small  buyers,  men  who  bought  townships  or  sec- 
tions, the  price  was  one  dollar  the  acre,  in  specie,  or  public 
securities  reduced  to  a  specie  value,  and  one  dollar  a  section 
for  surveying.  To  Symmes  and  Cutler  the  price  had  been 
sixty-six  and  two  thirds  cents,  paid  in  securities,  which,  when 
brought  down  to  the  specie  value,  made  the  price  between 
nine  and  ten  cents  an  acre.  Buying  for  a  small  sum,  they 
could  well  afford  to  sell  for  a  small  sum,  and  settlers  were  soon 
hurrying  to  Symmes  to  purchase  for  fifty  cents  an  acre,  with 
a  year's  credit  for  half,  as  good  land  as  they  could  possibly 
obtain  at  auction  from  the  Board  of  Treasury  at  two  dollars  an 
acre,  with  only  three  months'  credit  for  two  thirds.  Symmes, 
moreover,  would  sell  any  amount ;  the  Board  of  Treasury, 
not  less  than  six  hundred  and  forty  acres,  and  not  that  in 
every  township.  So  long  as  this  went  on  it  seemed  hopeless 

*  Ceded  March  8,  1787.     Accepted  by  Congress,  August  9,  1787. 

f  Tender  made  February  5,  1738.     Declined  by  Congress,  July  15,  1788. 

J  From  every  township  sold  to  the  Ohio  Company,  sections  eight,  eleven,  and 
sixteen  were  reserved  for  the  future  use  of  Congress.  Section  sixteen  was  set 
apart  for  the  use  of  schools,  section  twenty  nine  for  the  purpose  of  religion,  and 
an  area  not  greater  than  two  entire  townships  for  the  use  of  a  university.  The 
Bame  reservations  were  made  in  the  purchase  of  Judge  Symmes,  save  that  the 
university  was  to  receive  one  township  instead  of  two. 


116         THE  USES  MADE   OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

to  expect  that  one  section  would  be  sold  in  the  seven  ranges. 
Something  must  be  done,  and  this  something  Congress  at- 
tempted to  do  *  by  passing  a  supplement  to  the  land  ordinance 
of  1785.  Lower  the  price  they  would  not.  The  most  they 
would  do  was  to  go  out  and  seek  buyers.  The  Board  of 
Treasury,  therefore,  were  given  authority  to  travel  over  the 
country  and  sell  the  land  in  the  seven  ranges  wherever  they 
saw  fit,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  ordinance,  f  That  there 
might  be  plenty  of  land  to  sell,  no  more  was  to  be  drawn  in 
the  names  of  the  thirteen  States,  and  no  more  for  the  use  of 
the  Continental  army. 

But  the  Board  of  Treasury  never  made  an  auction  trip. 
The  Constitution  was  ratified ;  the  old  Congress  expired  for 
want  of  a  quorum ;  the  Board  of  Treasury  went  out  of  exist- 
ence ;  the  geographer  of  the  United  States  died ;  the  surveys 
stopped,  and  nothing  was  heard  of  Western  land  till  the  close 
of  May,  1789.  Then  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives for  Pennsylvania  once  more  brought  up  the  subject. 
lie  told  the  House  plainly  that  selling  land  by  contract  was  a 
great  mistake.  To  form  a  company  to  buy  a  million  acres 
was  a  hard  matter.  The  true  way  was  to  open  a  land-office 
in  the  Territory  and  sell  in  such  quantity  as  would  suit  the 
settler.  There  are,  said  he,  a  great  number  of  people  on  the 
ground  ready  and  willing  to  buy.  More  than  seven  thousand 
are  waiting  for  land,  and  land  they  will  have  here  or  else- 
where. They  will  quit  the  country  and  go  over  the  border  to 
the  Spanish  domain,  or  they  will  move  into  the  new  Territory 
and  take  their  farms  by  force.  What  then  will  you  do  ? 
Drive  them  off  ?  This  has  been  tried.  Troops  have  already 
been  sent  under  Colonel  Harmar  to  turn  out  the  squatters. 
Cabins  have  been  burned,  fences  have  been  pulled  down,  corn 
patches  torn  up.  But  was  anything  gained  ?  ~No.  In  three 
towns,  after  the  troops  were  out  of  sight,  the  squatters,  poorer 
but  as  determined  as  ever,  were  back,  rebuilding  their  homes 
and  cursing  the  Government  that  would  neither  give  nor  sell 
them  land.  He  called,  therefore,  in  their  name  for  a  land-office. 
The  House  heard  him,  and  appointed  a  committee  to  report. 

*  July,  1788.  f  The  ordinance  of  April  21,  1785. 

N 


1789.  OFFERS  TO  BUY  LAND.  117 

The  report  was  favorable,  and  in  time  a  bill  to  open  "  land- 
offices"  in  the  Territory,  to  provide  for  the  sale  of  small 
pieces  at  a  low  price,  and  to  give  to  men  then  in  the  Territory 
the  right  of  pre-emption,  was  before  the  House,  and  remained 
there  until  the  end  of  the  session.  The  precedent  set  up  by 
the  old  Congress  was  too  strong.  Men  had  been  made  to 
understand  that  there  was  one  price  for  the  small  buyer  and 
a  very  different  price  for  the  great  buyer,  and  when,  soon 
after,  a  petition  for  permission  to  purchase  on  the  system  of 
contract  came  in  from  Hannibal  William  Dobbyn,  in  behalf 
of  himself  and  some  responsible  people  in  Ireland,  it  was  sent 
to  a  committee,  and  reported  favorably. 

Some  objected  that  Mr.  Dobbyn  was  an  alien,  and  that  it 
was  by  no  means  certain  that  an  alien  could  hold  land  in  the 
United  States.  Others  did  not  want  any  inducement  in  the 
form  of  cheap  farms  to  be  held  out  to  foreigners.  They  ought 
to  be  suffered  to  come ;  they  ought  to  be  made  welcome  when 
they  did  come ;  but  they  ought  not  to  be  given  a  premium  for 
coming.  And  a  premium  was  what  the  petitioner  asked.  Citi- 
zens of  the  United  States  must  pay  for  their  land  promptly, 
but  Dobbyn  offered  one  third  down,  one  third  in  seven  years, 
and  the  rest  at  the  end  of  twelve.  Others  objected  to  selling 
on  petition.  If  every  offer  to  buy  was  to  come  before  the 
House,  the  members  would  soon  have  time  for  nothing  else. 
There  ought  to  be  a  uniform  system  that  should  not  be  de- 
parted from.*  The  House  felt  the  trnth  of  this,  and,  having 
tabled  the  petition,  instructed  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to 
report  on  a  nnif orm  plan  for  selling  land  in  the  Northwest 
Territory. 

While  the  Secretary  was  hard  at  work  on  his  plan,  the  land 
cession  by  North  Carolina  was  made  and  accepted ;  what  is 
now  Tennessee  became  public  domain,  and  a  new  territory, 
named  the  Territory  of  the  United  States,  south  of  the  river 
Ohio,  was  created,  territorial  government  of  the  first  grade 
established,  William  Blount  made  Governor,  and  all  the  ordi- 
nance of  1Y87,  save  the  sixth  section,  declared  in  force.* 
The  sixth  section  forbade  slavery,  and  had  to  be  suspended, 

*  May  26,  1790. 


118         THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xn. 

for  one  of  the  express  considerations  of  the  North  Carolina 
cession  was  that  no  law  made,  or  to  be  made,  by  Congress 
should  tend  to  the  liberation  of  slaves. 

Two  months  later  Hamilton  submitted  his  report.*  Ex- 
perience, he  said,  had  shown  that  there  were  three  classes  of 
land-buyers :  The  individual  settler,  who  wanted  a  few  hundred 
acres ;  the  speculator,  who  wanted  several  thousand  acres ;  the 
associations  of  small  buyers,  wanting  great  tracts.  Land,  there- 
fore, ought  to  be  laid  out  to  suit  each  class.  Some  tracts 
should  be  set  apart  from  time  to  time  to  be  sold  to  single  per- 
sons in  parcels  of  not  more  than  one  hundred  acres  to  any  one 
man.  Other  tracts  should  be  laid  out  in  townships,  ten  miles 
square,  to  meet  the  demands  of  speculators.  Still  others  should 
be  sold  by  special  contract,  and  in  any  quantity  that  might  be 
wanted.  The  price  he  fixed  at  thirty  cents  the  acre,  payable 
in  gold  or  silver  or  public  securities.  If  the  security  was  Gov- 
ernment stock,  bearing  six  per  cent  interest,  it  was  to  be  rated 
at  par ;  if  the  three  per  cent  stock,  or  the  deferred  stock,  then 
at  half  its  face  value.  No  credit  should  be  given  for  less  than 
a  township,  nor  for  more  than  two  years,  nor  without  good 
security,  nor  for  more  than  three  fourths  of  the  price  to  be 
paid. 

Having  heard  the  report,  the  House  framed  a  bill  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  suggestions  of  the  Secretary,  and  sent  it  to 
the  Senate.  The  Senate  put  off  considering,  it ;  Congress  soon 
rose,  and  six  years  went  by  before  the  matter  of  land  sales  in  the 
Northwest  again  came  up  for  serious  discussion.  Five  of  these 
were  years  of  Indian  warfare,  during  which  it  more  than  once 
seemed  likely  that  not  a  settler  would  be  suffered  to  remain  in 
the  Territory.  At  last,  in  1Y94,  at  the  rapids  of  the  Maumee, 
Anthony  Wayne  broke  the  Indian  power  and  gave  peace  to 
the  Northwest  for  seventeen  years.  The  great  victory  at  the 
Maumee  was  followed  the  next  year  by  the  Treaty  of  Green- 
ville. By  that  treaty  the  Indian  boundary  line,  drawn  at  Fort 
Mclntosh,  was  confirmed.  Southward  and  eastward  of  this 
line  the  Indian  title  was  declared  extinguished,  and  the  next 
year  Congress  opened  the  country  to  settlers.  One  question 

*  July  20,  1790. 


1796.  AREAS  TO  BE   SOLD   DEBATED.  H9 

discussed  when  the  bill  was  debated  was  the  relative  merit  of 
sales  in  large  tracts  and  in  small. 

Everybody  agreed  that  the  public  domain  ought  to  be  used 
to  pay  the  debt  of  the  United  States.  This  can  be  most 
quickly  done,  said  the  advocates  of  small  tracts,  by  cutting  the 
land  into  little  areas  and  selling  to  men  of  moderate  means. 
The  number  of  such  men  is  very  great.  By  putting  it  in  their 
power  to  buy  you  will  at  once  attract  them  by  thousands,  and 
so  wipe  out  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  debt. 

This,  said  the  supporters  of  sales  in  large  tracts,  would  be 
true  if  the  money  was  paid  down  at  once ;  but  it  will  not  be 
paid  down  at  once.  Small  buyers  are  poor  men,  and  poor  men 
want  credit.  In  place  of  revenue,  you  will,  by  such  a  system, 
gain  debtors.  Men  who  can  make  a  cash  payment  must  be 
rich,  or  at  least  well-to-do.  For  the  well-to-do  a  section  is 
none  too  large ;  for  the  rich  a  township  is  none  too  great. 
Selling  in  small  areas,  it  was  urged,  is  impartial ;  the  poor  and 
the  rich  are  treated  alike.  The  settler  who  wants  a  few  acres 
has  them ;  the  speculator  who  wants  thousands  can  have  them 
by  purchasing  a  number  of  small  tracts.  Selling  in  large 
tracts  is  partial ;  it  absolutely  bars  out  the  poor.  Poor  men, 
it  was  answered,  cannot  expect  to  buy  of  Government ;  they 
must  have  long  credit,  and  must  go  to  the  speculator.  If, 
again,  only  small  tracts  are  sold,  they  will  be  picked  here  and 
there.  This  will  shut  out  the  capitalists,  who  will  not  be  able 
to  get  their  thousands  in  one  unbroken  piece.  The  result  was 
a  compromise. 

The  manner  of  selling  was  next  debated.  The  framers  of 
the  bill  were  for  abolishing  the  auction  system  and  establish- 
ing land-offices.  This  was  strongly  opposed.  Nobody,  it  was 
said,  would  buy  without  having  seen  the  country.  Such  a 
journey  was  very  costly,  and  no  one  would  make  it  without 
the  certainty  of  getting  the  land  he  might  pick  out.  But  the 
office  system  insured  no  such  certainty ;  indeed,  it  made  fraud 
possible.  The  moment  the  settler  had  made  his  bid,  a  dis- 
honest land  agent  might  give  the  amount  to  a  speculator.  The 
speculator,  knowing  the  land  must  be  valuable,  could  safely 
offer  a  small  advance  and  secure  the  section  without  the  trouble 
and  expense  of  exploring  it.  An  attempt  was  made  to  com- 


120         THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  XYI. 

promise.  Let  there  be  offices,  it  was  urged,  where  application 
can  be  made  for  any  lot,  without  naming  any  price.  Let  these 
lots  then  be  offered  at  public  vendue,  and  let  no  lot  be  offered 
that  has  not  been  applied  for.  This  will  assure  at  least  one 
bidder.  But  the  House  felt  the  force  of  the  argument  in  favor 
of  the  auction  system,  and  retained  it. 

When  the  President  signed  the  bill,  it  applied  to  the  land 
Northwest  of  the  Ohio  river,  above  the  mouth  of  the  Ken- 
tucky river.  By  this  was  meant  the  region  between  the  Ohio, 
the  Indian  boundary  line,  and  the  seven  ranges.  Whatever 
was  not  reserved,  or  already  laid  out,  was  to  be  parted  into 
townships  six  miles  square.  Of  these,  one  half,  taken  alter- 
nately, was  to  be  cut  up  into  sections  of  six  hundred  and 
forty  acres,  and  offered  some  at  Pittsburg  and  some  at  Cincin- 
nati, and  one  half,  left  undivided,  was  to  be  sold  in  quarters  at 
the  seat  of  Government.  Townships  in  the  seven  ranges, 
ordered  by  the  ordinance  of  1785  to  be  sold  entire,  were  now 
to  be  offered  in  quarters  at  Philadelphia  and  the  rest  at  Pitts- 
burg.  In  every  township  the  four  centre  sections  were  re- 
served. All  sales  were  to  be  by  public  vendue,  and  no  bids 
were  to  be  taken  at  less  than  two  dollars  the  acre.  Buyers 
must  deposit  one  twentieth  of  the  money  on  the  day  of  sale, 
and  a  moiety  within  thirty  days  thereafter.  This  done,  a  year's 
credit  would  be  given  for  the  remainder.  For  cash  payment 
of  the  whole  sum  a  discount  of  ten  per  cent  was  allowed. 

Confident  that  purchasers  would  be  found,  the  House  at 
its  next  session  instructed  a  committee  to  report  on  the  work- 
ings of  the  law,  and  heard,  with  deep  regret,  that  of  the  mill- 
ions of  acres  offered  at  Pittsburg,  not  fifty  thousand  had  been 
taken ;  that  not  one  acre  had  been  sold  at  Philadelphia,  and 
that  the  whole  revenue  brought  to  the  Treasury  was  but  a 
trifle  over  one  hundred  and  twelve  dollars. 

Men  complained  that  the  price  was  too  high ;  that  the 
terms  were  too  severe ;  that  the  surveys  were  so  badly  made 
that  it  was  impossible  for  a  buyer  to  find  his  section  or  his 
quarter  township.  The  committee  recommended  a  change. 
They  would  not  lessen  the  price,  but  they  would  have  it  paid 
one  fifth  in  thirty  days,  and  four  fifths  in  four  annual  instal- 
ments. The  House,  however,  did  nothing,  and  a  year  later, 


1798.  A  TERRITORY  OF  THE   SECOND  GRADE.  121 

when  a  petition  came  in  praying  for  leave  to  buy  at  less  than 
two  dollars  an  acre,  the  prompt  answer  was,  No  !  The  next 
year,  1799,  passed  away  without  bringing  to  the  Treasury  one 
penny  from  the  sale  of  Western  lands ;  but  it  brought  to  Con- 
gress, what  was  better  yet,  the  first  Territorial  delegate  from 
the  Northwest  Territory. 

The  buyers  of  public  land  might,  indeed,  be  few,  but  the 
settlers  were  many,  and  the  time  had  now  come  when,  under 
the  ordinance  of  1787,  the  Territory  was  ready  to  enter  the 
second  grade  and  be  governed  by  a  Legislature  of  its  own. 
Since  the  day  when  the  army  of  Anthony  Wayne  defeated 
the  Indians  at  the  Rapids  of  the  Maumee,  a  stream  of  popu- 
lation had  come  pouring  into  the  Territory,  pushing  up  the 
Miami  and  Scioto,  taking  up  land,  making  settlements,  and 
founding  towns.  Dayton  had  been  started,  and  Chillicothe 
and  Cleveland.  More  than  two  hundred  thousand  acres  had 
been  sold  in  the  seven  ranges,  a  post-road  ordered  across  the 
Territory,  from  Wheeling,  in  Virginia,  to  Limestone,  in  Ken- 
tucky, and  the  work  of  building  begun  by  Ebenezer  Zane. 
His  pay  was  a  grant  of  a  section  of  land,  where  the  "  trace  " 
crossed  the  three  great  rivers.  One  section  was  on  the  Mus- 
kingum,  and  there  he  founded  Zanesville ;  another  on  the 
Hockhocking,  where  he  founded  New  Lancaster;  the  third 
was  opposite  Chillicothe,  on  the  Scioto. 

Precisely  how  great  the  population  was  in  1798  cannot 
now  be  known.  The  census  was  taken,  but  the  returns  are 
gone.  It  is,  however,  enough  to  know  that  in  1798  an  elec- 
tion of  twenty-two  delegates  to  a  Territorial  Legislature  was 
ordered,  that  they  met  at  Cincinnati,*  that  they  chose  ten  men, 
from  whom,  in  time,  Adams  chose  five  to  form  a  council ; 
and  that  when  they  met  again  in  September  they  elected 
William  Henry  Harrison  to  be  their  delegate  to  Congress. 

William  Henry  Harrison  was  the  son  of  Benjamin  Harri- 
son, a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  was 
born  on  his  plantation  on  the  James  river  in  February,  1773. 
In  1791  Benjamin  Harrison  died,  Robert  Morris  became 
guardian  to  the  son,  and  the  lad,  who  had  begun  his  studies  in 

*  February  4,  1798. 


122         THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

Hampden  Sidney  College,  went  to  reside  at  Philadelphia.  By 
the  advice  of  Morris  he  determined  to  become  a  physician, 
and  for  a  time  served  in  the  office  of  Benjamin  Rush.  But 
the  practice  of  medicine  was  not  to  his  taste,  and  he  soon  ap- 
plied in  person  to  Washington  for  a  commission  in  the  United 
States  army.  The  request  was  granted,  and,  with  some  good 
advice  from  Washington,  and  an  ensign's  commission  in  the 
artillery,  he  set  out  in  November,  1791,  for  the  West.  For  a 
while  he  was  stationed  at  Fort  Washington,  where  the  city  of 
Cincinnati  now  stands.  But  in  1792  he  joined  the  army  of 
Anthony  Wayne,  took  part  in  all  the  Indian  campaigns,  was 
thanked  for  his  services  in  the  fight  which  recovered  the  field 
of  St.  Clair's  defeat,  was  thanked  again  for  his  bravery  in  the 
great  victory  at  the  Rapids  of  the  Maumee,  and  in  1795  came 
back  to  Fort  Washington  to  command  the  post  with  the  rank 
of  Captain.  In  1797  he  resigned  his  commission,  was  promptly 
made  Secretary  of  the  Northwest  Territory  by  Washington, 
and  a  year  later  took  his  seat  as  delegate  to  the  sixth  Congress. 
He  was  just  ending  his  twenty-seventh  year. 

The  first  session  of  the  sixth  Congress  began  on  the  second 
of  December,  1799.  On  the  sixth  Harrison  moved  a  com- 
mittee to  report  what  changes,  if  any,  should  be  made  in  the 
judicial  establishment  of  the  Northwest  Territory.  The  com- 
mittee was  appointed ;  Harrison  was  the  chairman,  and  soon 
brought  in  a  bill,  which  was  sent  to  the  Committee  of  the 
Whole.  The  Committee  of  the  Whole  sent  it  back  to  the  men 
who  framed  it,  with  a  call  for  an  expression  of  opinion  on 
the  expediency  of  parting  the  Territory  into  two  distinct  gov- 
ernments, by  a  due  north  line  from  the  mouth  of  the  Great 
Miami  river  to  the  Canadian  boundary.  In  March  the  com- 
mittee told  the  House  that  such  a  partition  was  greatly  needed. 
The  distance  from  the  southeast  corner  to  the  northwest  corner 
was  fifteen  hundred  miles,  and  that,  in  a  country  so  sparsely 
settled  and  so  little  redeemed  from  native  wildness,  this  dis- 
tance was  enough  to  make  the  exercise  of  the  functions  of 
government  impossible.  The  actual  number  of  miles  between 
the  most  remote  places  of  holding  courts  was  thirteen  hun- 
dred. To  traverse  this  distance  was  so  difficult  that  but  one 
Criminal  Court  had  been  held  in  the  three  western  counties  in 


1800.  NORTHWEST  TERRITORY  DIVIDED.  123 

five  years.  They  had  become  in  consequence  an  asylum  for 
wickedness.  Yile  and  abandoned  criminals  went  into  them. 
Useful  and  virtuous  men  kept  away.  The  committee,  there- 
fore, reported  a  resolution  that  the  Territory  be  divided  by  the 
line  proposed. 

But  the  division  of  the  Territory  was  a  matter  in  which 
the  Governor,  as  well  as  the  delegate,  was  much  concerned. 
Each-  was  for  it,  but  each  gave  very  different  reasons,  and 
each  suggested  a  very  different  line.  St.  Clair  wished  division 
in  order  that  the  eastern  part  might  be  longer  in  becoming 
a  State.  Harrison  was  for  division  in  order  that  justice  in 
each  might  be  better  administered.  St.  Clair  had  then  at 
Philadelphia  two  warm  friends,  and  to  them — James  Ross,  a 
Senator  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Timothy  Pickering,  the  Secre- 
tary of  State — he  made  known  his  views  in  full.  To  Picker- 
ing he  advocated  such  a  line  as  would  make  of  the  eastern 
part  a  Federal  State,  and  pointed  out  just  where  the  line 
should  run.  To  Ross  he  declared  that  the  people  were  in  no 
wise  fit  to  form  a  State ;  that  they  were  too  ignorant  to  make 
a  Constitution ;  that  they  were  too  far  from  the  seat  of  gov- 
ernment to  feel  the  power  of  the  United  States  ;  that  no  ties 
bound  them  to  the  East,  where  many  had  left  nothing  at  all 
but  debts ;  that  they  had  no  fixed  political  principles,  and 
would,  as  citizens  of  a  State,  be  as  unruly  and  as  troublesome 
as  the  people  of  Kentucky.  The  prospect  of  another  State  as 
republican  as  Kentucky  was  far  from  pleasing,  for  Kentucky 
was  even  then  denouncing  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws,  had 
boldly  asserted  the  doctrine  of  State  Rights,  and  had  just  passed 
the  famous  resolutions  of  1798  and  1799.  Mr.  Ross,  therefore, 
read  with  pleasure  that  the  danger  of  bringing  in  another  such 
Commonwealth  could  be  avoided  by  drawing  a  line  due  north 
from  the  mouth  of  Eagle  Creek.  Population  enough  would 
then  be  taken  from  the  eastern  part  to  keep  it  a  Territory  for 
some  years  to  come.  Population  enough  would  then  be  given 
to  the  western  part  to  make  it  a  Territory  of  the  second 
grade. 

The  wish  of  St.  Clair,  however,  was  not  obtained.  The 
House  passed  a  bill  with  a  line  from  the  mouth  of  the  river 
Miami  as  the  boundary  of  the  Territory.  The  Senate  struck 


124         THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

this  out  and  put  in  the  Indian  boundary  from  a  point  opposite 
the  Kentucky  river  to  Fort  Recovery,  and  then  a  meridian  to 
Canada.  The  territory  to  the  east  was  still  to  be  called  the 
Territory  Northwest  of  the  Ohio.  That  to  the  west  was  called 
Indiana  Territory,  and,  whatever  the  population  might  be,  was 
to  have  an  assembly  of  not  less  than  seven  nor  more  than  nine, 
appointed  by  the  Governor,  who  in  time  was  William  Henry 
Harrison.  On  May  seventh,  1800,  the  President  signed  the 
bill. 

Three  days  later  he  signed  a  batch  of  bills,  and  among 
them  were  two  more  land  acts  of  importance.  One  related  to 
the  new  Territory,  and  this,  also,  was  the  work  of  the  delegate. 
Having  started  his  first  reform,  Harrison,  on  December  fourth, 
1799,  began  his  second.  He  informed  the  House  on  that  day 
that  the  whole  system  of  selling  public  lands  was  bad,  and 
moved  a  committee  to  inquire  what  amendments  were  needed. 
The  motion  was  carried ;  the  speaker  made  him  chairman  of 
the  committee,  and  in  March,  1800,  he  reported  a  bill  which 
passed  Congress. 

To  break  away  from  the  usages  of  the  past  was  hard,  and 
in  the  new  law  *  were  preserved  many  provisions  of  the  old 
law  which  it  displaced.  The  price  was  still  two  dollars  the  acre. 
The  auction  system  was  still  retained.  Nor  would  the  Govern- 
ment consent  to  sell  less  than  three  hundred  and  twenty  acres. 
The  privilege  of  buying  this  amount  was  not  general,  and  to 
get  it  the  settler  must  go  west  of  the  Muskingum  river.  East 
of  that  river  the  smallest  quantity  for  sale  was  six  hundred  and 
forty  acres.  But  all  these  defects  were  offset,  and  more  than 
offset,  by  the  long  terms  of  credit  and  by  the  opening  of  land- 
offices  in  the  Territory,  at  Cincinnati,  Chillicothe,  Marietta, 
and  Steubenville.  Each  of  them  was  made  the  place  of  sale 
for  land  lying  within  certain  bounds,  and  at  each  on  a  fixed 
day  in  1800,  and  for  three  weeks  thereafter,  the  half-sections 
were  to  be  put  up  for  sale  at  auction.  The  three  weeks  gone, 
all  unsold  lands  were  to  be  open  for  private  sale  at  two  dollars 
the  acre  and  the  cost  of  surveying.  One  twentieth  must  be 
paid  down,  and  within  forty  days  as  much  more  as  would 

*  May  10, 1800. 


1800.  MANNER  OF  SELLING  LAND.  125 

make  one  fourth.  The  rest,  with  interest  at  six  per  cent,  could 
be  paid,  one  quarter  at  the  end  of  two  years,  one  quarter  at  the 
end  of  three  years,  and  the  last  quarter  at  the  end  of  four. 
For  prepayment  a  discount  of  eight  per  cent  was  allowed. 
Thus,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  country,  it  be- 
came possible  for  a  man  with  a  small  sum  of  money  to  buy  a 
large  amount  of  Government  land. 

Forty  years  later,  when  the  "Whigs  were  shouting  for  "  Tip 
and  Ty,"  the  biographers  of  Harrison  delighted  to  tell  the 
people  that,  till  this  act  passed,  the  smallest  piece  of  land  the 
Government  would  sell  was  four  thousand  acres ;  that  Harri- 
son framed  the  bill,  and  that  to  Harrison  therefore  every 
Western  farmer  owed  it  that  he  was  a  happy,  prosperous,  free, 
and  independent  owner  of  the  soil,  and  not  the  tenant  of  a 
great  and  wealthy  landlord.  The  story  of  the  four  thousand 
acres  is  wholly  false,  but  that  the  passing  of  the  law  was  due 
to  the  efforts  of  Harrison  is  strictly  true.* 

The  second  land  bill,  approved  by  Adams  in  1800,  related 
to 'the  territory  south  of  the  Ohio.  By  the  letters  patent  to 
Oglethorpe,  in  1Y32,  the  boundaries  given  to  Georgia  were 
the  Atlantic  Ocean,  the  Altamaha  and  Savannah  rivers  from 
their  mouths  to  their  sources,  and  lines  from  their  sources  due 
west  to  the  South  Sea.f  Disputes  having  arisen  between  the 
governments  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  over  the  owner- 
ship of  the  lands  between  the  Altamaha  and  St.  Mary's,  the 
King,  in  his  proclamation  of  1763,  annexed  them  to  Georgia.:}: 
By  the  same  proclamation  he  created  the  provinces  of  East 
Florida  and  West  Florida,  and  forbade  the  Governors  of  any 

*  Mr.  J.  P.  Dunn,  Jr.,  in  his  Indiana,  a  Redemption  from  Slavery  [American 
Commonwealth  Series],  p.  283,  declares  that  "  Up  to  this  time  (1800)  the  Western 
lands,  hy  law,  were  not  sold  in  tracts  of  less  than  4,000  acres."  This  is  a  mistake. 
The  ordinance  of  May  20, 1785,  provided  for  the  sale  of  sections  of  640  acres.  The 
act  of  May  18,  1796,  sections  4  and  5,  provided  for  the  sale  of  land  in  townships 
of  20,480  acres,  quarter  townships  of  5,120  acres,  and  in  sections  0/640  acres  at 
Cincinnati  and  Pittsburg.  There  never  was  a  time,  therefore,  when  a  settler 
could  not  somewhere  buy  640  acres. 

f  June  9,  1732. 

|  "  We  have  also,  with  the  advice  of  our  Privy  Council  aforesaid,  annexed  to 
our  province  of  Georgia,  all  the  lands  lying*  between  the  rivers  Altamaha  and  St. 
Mary's." — Proclamation,  October  7,  1763. 


126         THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  XTI. 

colony  to  dispose  of  an  acre  of  land,  or  to  allow  a  man  to  set- 
tle above  the  sources  of  the  rivers  which  flowed  into  the  At- 
lantic. During  thirteen  years  the  proclamation  was  in  force. 
But  in  1776,  when  the  Colonies  declared  their  independence 
and  took  up  civil  government,  each  claimed  to  exercise  juris- 
diction over  the  same  extent  of  territory  that  had  belonged  to 
it  before  the  proclamation  of  1763  was  issued.  Among  these 
States  was  Georgia,  who  defined  her  boundaries  as  the  Missis- 
sippi, the  Atlantic,  the  line  due  west  from  the  source  of  the 
Savannah,  and  the  south  boundary  of  the  United  States.* 
Having  thus  asserted  her  right  to  the  soil,  she  went  on,  two 
years  later,  to  use  that  right,  and  in  1785  erected  a  strip  along 
the  Mississippi,  to  which  the  Indian  title  had  been  extin- 
guished, into  Bourbon  County. f  Hardly  had  she  done  this 
when  the  old  dispute  with  South  Carolina  was  revived.  The 
claim  of  South  Carolina  was  that  the  proclamation  of  1763 
made  the  western  boundary  of  Georgia  a  line  joining  the 
sources  of  the  St.  Mary's,  the  Altamaha,  and  the  Savannah 
rivers;  and  that  all  west  of  such  a  line  reverted,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  Revolution,  to  Carolina,  from  whom  it  had  been 
taken  by  the  King.  Disputes  between  States  were,  by  the 
ninth  article  of  the  Confederation,  to  be  arbitrated  by  a  court 
appointed  by  Congress  at  the  request  of  one  of  the  States  con- 
cerned. For  such  a  court  South  Carolina  now  applied.:}:  The 
petition  was  granted,  the  court  named,  and  the  day  fixed  for 
the  hearing ;  but  the  States,  before  that  day  came,  agreed  to 
settle  the  matter  themselves,  and  the  petition  was  withdrawn.* 
True  to  this  agreement,  the  question  of  ownership  was  deter- 
mined in  1788,  and  the  claims  of  South  Carolina  were  then 
formally  relinquished.  | 

That  same  year  Georgia  made  a  cession  of  these  lands  to 
Congress.      The  cession  was  not  accepted,  and  at  the  next 

*  Act  of  February  17,  1783. 

f  Starting  at  the  month  of  Yazoo  river,  it  went  clown  the  Mississippi  to 
thirty-one  degrees,  and  along  the  thirty-first  degree  for  sixty  miles  due  east.  The 
upper  end  was  fifteen  miles  wide. 

J  Journals  of  Congress,  vol.  x,  p.  190. 

*  Journals  of  Congress,  vol.  xi,  p.  218. 

[  The  Commissioners  of  the  two  States  met  at  Beaufort  and  framed  a  Con- 
vention, April  24,  1787;  South  Carolina  ratified  this,  February  29,  1788. 


1789.  THE  YAZOO  LAND  COMPANIES.  127 

meeting  of  the  Legislature  certain  citizens  of  Virginia,  North 
Carolina,  and  South  Carolina  applied  for  leave  to  buy  land 
between  the  Tombigbee  and  the  Mississippi,  and  three  great 
tracts  of  land  were  sold  to  three  companies,  named  the  Vir- 
ginia Yazoo,  the  South  Carolina  Yazoo,  and  the  Tennessee.* 
The  intention  of  each  company,  as  set  forth  in  its  petition, 
was  to  pay  in  Georgia  bills  of  credit.  Some  of  these,  known 
by  the  nickname  of  Rattlesnake,  were  of  no  value  whatsoever. 
Fearing  that  this  worthless  paper  might  be  gathered  and  ten- 
dered, the  Legislature  sent  a  committee  to  the  agents  of  the 
companies,  who  agreed  that  Rattlesnake  money  should  not  be 
offered,  and  the  bill  passed.  Two  years  were  given  in  which 
to  make  payment.  In  the  House  the  minority  entered  a 
strong  protest. 

Acting  under  the  law,  which  said  nothing  about  the  kind 
of  money  to  be  received,  and  having  offered  paper  money  in 
their  petitions,  the  two  companies  made  a  part  payment  in 
Georgia  bills.  But,  when  a  tender  of  the  rest  was  made,  the 
State  Treasurer  declined  to  receive  it,  and,  the  two  years  end- 
ing, the  Governor  refused  to  pass  the  grant.  The  Virginia 
Yazoo  Company  then  withdrew  the  money  paid  to  the  Treas- 
urer. The  South  Carolina  Company  brought  suitf  against 
Georgia  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  but  the 
adoption  of  the  eleventh  amendment  to  the  Constitution  cut 
short  the  suit,:}:  and  left  the  company  to  seek  redress  elsewhere. 

Such  was  their  condition  when,  in  1794,*  the  Georgia  Legis- 
lature passed  a  second  act,  selling  the  same  land  to  four  com- 
panies, named  the  Georgia,  the  Georgia  Mississippi,  the  Up- 
per Mississippi,  and  the  Tennessee.  The  Governor  returned 
the  bill,  and  gave  eight  reasons.  A  conference  followed.  The 
Legislature  struck  out  the  objectionable  features,  and  on  Janu- 
ary seventh,  1795,  the  bill  was  approved.  Then  the  wickedness 
of  the  sale  came  out  fast.  Of  those  who  voted  for  it  in  the 
House,  the  majority  were  found  to  be  concerned  in  the  pur- 
chase ;  of  those  who  voted  for  it  in  the  Senate,  many  were 

*  Laws  of  Georgia,  December  21,  1789. 
f  Moultrie  el  al.  vs.  Georgia  el  al. 

f  Hollingsworth  et  al.  vs.  Virginia,  3  Dallas,  pp.  378-380. 

*  December  29,  1794. 


128         THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

likewise  found  to  be  moved  by  corrupt  motives.  The  people 
all  over  the  State  were  furious.  In  county  after  county  the 
Grand  Jury  presented  the  sale  as  a  grievance.  A  Convention 
was  called,  met  at  Louisville,*  received  petitions,  and  bade  the 
next  Legislature  take  up  the  matter.  The  Legislature  obeyed, 
and  in  February,  1796,  declared  the  act  had  been  obtained  by 
fraud  and  corruption ;  pronounced  it  null  and  void ;  ordered 
all  records  of  grants  and  conveyances  under  it  to  be  wiped 
from  the  books ;  forbade  any  others  to  be  recorded ;  and  went 
in  solemn  procession  to  see  it  burned. 

And  now  the  United  States  for  the  first  time  took  alarm. 
The  President  laid  the  act  before  Congress,  f  who  instructed 
the  Attorney-General  examine  the  title  of  the  United  States 
to  the  land  claimed  by  these  companies.:}:  The  huge  batch  of 
documents*  he  sent  back  was  referred  by  the  Senate  to  a  com- 
mittee, and  the  committee  advised  negotiation.  (  That  the 
boundary  of  Georgia  was  a  line  from  the  source  of  the  St. 
Mary's  river  to  the  source  of  the  Ocmulgee  and  the  Savannah, 
heading  all  the  rivers  which  flowed  into  the  Atlantic,  the  com- 
mittee had  no  doubt  whatever ;  but,  as  this  line  had  never 
been  traced,  they  recommended  that  a  joint  commission  be 
constituted  to  determine  it.  Meanwhile,  Congress  should  ask 
for  the  consent  of  Georgia  to  set  up  a  temporary  government 
on  the  disputed  territory  similar  to  that  northwest  of  the  river 
Ohio.A  Having  heard  the '  report,  the  Senate  ordered  it 
printed,  and  the  following  day  adjourned. 

The  report,  however,  was  not  forgotten.  Early  in  the  next 
session  the  matter  was  again  taken  up,  and  a  bill  based  on  the 
report  passed  both  House  and  Senate.  Two  matters  were  pro- 
vided for :  The  appointment  of  a  joint  commission  to  settle  the 
conflicting  claims  of  Georgia  and  the  United  States,  and  the 
formation  of  a  new  territory  to  be  called  Mississippi,^  with 

*  May  10,  1795.  *  Communicated  to  the  Senate,  April  29,  1796. 

•f  February  17,  1795.  |  March  2,  1797. 

\  Resolution  passed  March  3,  1795. 

A  Communicated  to  the  Senate,  March  2,  1797.  Public  Lands,  vol.  i,  pp 
79,  80. 

()  The  bounds  of  Mississippi  Territory  were  to  be  the  parallel  of  thirty-one 
degrees,  the  Chattahoochee  river,  a  line  due  east  from  where  the  Yazoo  joins  the 
Mississippi,  and  the  Mississippi. 


1798.  MISSISSIPPI  TERRITORY.  129 

a  government  of  the  same  sort  as  that  in  force  in  the  North- 
west Territory,  save  that  slavery  was  not  to  be  forbidden.* 
'No  time  was  lost  in  organizing  under  the  act,  and  ten  days 
after  signing  it  Adams  nominated  the  officials  to  the  Senate. 
For  Governor  he  chose  George  Mathews,  of  Georgia ;  for  Sec- 
retary, Arthur  Miller,  of  Connecticut ;  and  for  Judges,  Will- 
iam Witmore,  Daniel  Clark,  and  Daniel  Tilton.f  The  Senate 
seeming  loath  to  agree  to  these  names,  Adams  on  May  second 
withdrew  them,  and  sent  a  new  list  instead.  His  second  choice 
for  Governor  was  "Winthrop  Sargent,  then  Secretary  of  the 
Northwest  Territory ;  and  for  Secretary,  John  Steele,  of  Vir- 
ginia. Tke  Judges  were  Peter  Bryan  Bruin  and  Daniel  Til- 
ton.  The  Chief  Judgeship  he  left  vacant.^  A  contest  now 
took  place  over  the  confirmation  of  Sargent,  and  by  one  vote 
was  carried  in  his  favor.* 

Early  in  August  the  Governor,  the  judges,  and  many  set- 
tlers from  the  Northwest  arrived  at  Natchez.  There  Sargent 
proceeded  to  organize  the  government,  lay  out  counties,  and 
began  an  administration  short,  violent,  and  disastrous.  Sar- 
gent was  a  Puritan.  The  people  he  governed  were  French  and 
Spanish  Catholics.  That  harmony  should  long  continue  be- 
tween them  was  impossible,  and  he  was  soon  sending  to  the 
Secretary  of  State  descriptions  of  the  people  which  represented 
them  as  worse  than  the  penal  colony  of  Botany  Bay.  "Dif- 
fused over  our  country,"  said  he,  "  are  aliens  of  various  char- 
acters, and  among  them  the  most  abandoned  villains,  convicted 
of  the  blackest  crimes,  and  escaped  from  the  chains  and  prisons 
of  Spain.  To  extirpate  these  people  from  our  Territory  would 
be  a  wise  policy."  Natchez,  where,  after  mass  on  Sundays,  the 
people  indulged  in  all  manner  of  amusements  and  excesses,  he 
describes  as  an  abominable  place,  and  suggests  that  the  inhabi- 
tants be  taught  more  seemly  behavior  with  the  bayonet.  Hold- 

*  Act  of  April  7,  1798. 

f  Executive  Journal  of  the  Senate,  April  18,  1798. 

\  Executive  Journal  of  the  Senate,  May  2,  1798.     June  26,  1798,  William 
McGuire  was  made  Chief  Justice. 

*  The  vote  stood — yeas,  eleven  ;  nays,  ten.     Every  Senator  from  south  of  the 
Ohio  and  Potomac  voted  no ;  every  Senator  from  the  North  voted  yes,  save  Tracy, 
of  Connecticut.     Executive  Journal  of  the  Senate,  May  7,  1798. 

VOL.  in. — 10 


130        THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvr. 

ing  the  Federal  doctrine  that  none  but  New  Englanders  were 
fit  to  be  free,  he  broke  through  every  law  imposed  on  himself, 
and  established  a  government  for  which  the  term  tyrannical  is 
too  mild.  By  one  order  he  decreed  that  every  alien  entering 
the  Territory  should  report  to  a  magistrate  within  two  hours 
of  his  arrival  at  any  settled  post,  or  be  imprisoned.  By  another 
order  he  created  the  office  of  administrator  on  the  estates  of 
decedents,  laid  down  the  law  for  its  management,  and  appointed 
an  officer  to  fill  it.  Without  the  shadow  of  right  he  next  be- 
gan to  exact  fees  for  his  private  purse.  Every  man  who  took 
out  a  marriage  license,  every  man  who  wished  for  the  privilege 
of  feeding  travellers  or  selling  liquors,  must  pay  the  Governor 
eight  dollars  for  the  license.  Every  man  who  wished  to  leave 
the  Territory  must  first  get  a  passport,  costing  four  dollars. 
Galled  by  these  exactions  and  by  the  illegal  punishments 
prescribed  by  the  penal  code,  the  chief  men  of  the  Territory 
met,*  and  called  on  the  people  of  every  district  or  "  beat  "  to 
choose  members  of  a  committee  to  lay  their  grievance  before 
Congress.  The  petition  thus  presented  charged  the  Governor 
with  promulgating  laws  framed  by  himself,  in  direct  violation 
of  the  ordinance  of  1787  ;  with  subjecting  the  people  to  illegal 
taxation  and  exorbitant  fees;  with  exacting  excessive  fines, 
and  imposing  cruel  and  unconstitutional  punishments ;  and 
asked  that  the  Territory  be  raised  to  the  second  grade.  Con- 
gress heard  the  prayer,  declared  the  odious  laws  to  be  null  and 
void,f  gave  the  Territory  a  Legislative  Assembly,:}:  and  began 
an  examination  of  the  Governor's  conduct,  which  came  to 
nothing.*  Against  this  act  Georgia  protested  most  vigor- 
ously, for  every  foot  of  the  Territory  belonged,  she  asserted, 
to  her.  But  the  House  replied  that,  the  United  States  having 
named  commissioners  under  the  act  of  1798,  and  Georgia 
having  done  the  same,  the  whole  matter  might  safely  be  left 
with  them.  |  The  three  Commissioners  for  the  United  States 
were,  the  Secretary  of  State,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 

*  July  6,  1799. 

f  Annals  of  Congress,  May  9,  1800. 
t  Act  of  May  2,  1800. 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  May  14,  1800;  March  3,  1801. 

|  Report  of  the  Committee  of  the  House,  February  28,  1801. 


1802.  THE  GEORGIA  CESSION.  131 

and  the  Attorney-General.*  They  were  nominated  on  the 
last  day  of  December,  1799.  They  fell,  therefore,  under  Jef- 
ferson's rule,  that  all  appointments  made  after  the  result  of 
the  election  was  known  should  be  treated  as  null.  But  he  chose 
to  find  another  reason  for  getting  rid  of  them.  They  were 
Heads  of  Departments,  and,  construing  the  action  of  Adams 
to  mean  that  the  Commissioners  should  be  chosen  from  the 
Heads  of  Departments,  he  removed  them  and  nominated  his 
own  Secretaries  and  Attorney-General  in  their  stead,  f 

By  these  men  an  arrangement  was  quickly  effected,  and 
in  April  articles  of  agreement  and  cession  were  signed  at 
Washington.^:  Georgia  then  drew  her  present  boundary  on 
the  west,  and  gave  to  the  United  States  all  lands  between  it 
and  the  Mississippi.  In  return  the  United  States  gave  to 
Georgia  a  strip  just  south  of  Tennessee,*  agreed  to  pay  her  a 
million  and  a  quarter  of  dollars  from  the  proceeds  of  land 
sales,  agreed  to  extinguish  the  Indian  title  within  her  limits, 
agreed  to  admit  the  ceded  Territory  into  the  Union  as  a  State, 
when  the  population  numbered  sixty  thousand  souls,  and  to 
confirm  all  grants  recognized  by  Georgia  as  legal.  Georgia  on 
her  part  consented  that  five  million  acres  should  be  set  apart 
to  satisfy  claims  she  did  not  consider  legal. 

No  sooner  was  the  agreement  read  than  the  most  violent 
opposition  was  made  to  it  both  in  the  House  and  the  Senate. 
One  clause  provided  that,  unless  Georgia  should  refuse  to 
ratify,  or  unless  Congress  should,  within  six  months,  repeal 
the  act  of  1800,  the  agreement  was  binding.  As  the  session 
was  nearing  its  end,  no  time  was  to  be  lost,  and  a  motion  was 
at  once  made  to  repeal.  By  a  strictly  sectional  vote  it  was 
lost,  and,  Georgia  soon  after  approving,  the  agreement  became 
law.  The  Commissioners  meantime  went  on  to  perform  the 
second  duty  assigned  them,  examined  the  claims  of  settlers, 
received  offers  of  compromise,  and  in  February,  1803,  re- 
ported. Claimants  to  land  in  the  ceded  territory  they  divided 
into  two  classes :  those  who  were  recognized  by  Georgia,  and 

*  Executive  Journal  of  the  Senate,  December  81,  1799. 
f  Executive  Journal  of  the  Senate,  January  5,  1802. 

t  April  24,  1802.     American  State  Papers.     Public  Land,  vol.  i,  pp.  125,  126. 

*  This  was  part  of  the  South  Carolina  cession  of  1787. 


132         THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

those  who  were  not.  In  the  first  class  were  men  deriving  title 
from  the  British  Government  of  West  Florida,  from  Spain, 
from  Georgia,  or  from  occupancy  and  settlement.  In  the  sec- 
ond class  were  men  who  held  British  and  Spanish  titles  they 
could  not  perfect,  squatters  who  had  no  evidence  of  title,  men 
who  held  grants  and  were  not  living  in  the  territory  when  the 
treaty  was  made  with  Spain,  and  the  Yazoo  speculators.  Both 
classes  had  been  provided  for ;  one  by  the  express  terms  of 
the  agreement  with  Georgia ;  the  other  by  the  reservation 
of  the  five  million  acres.  Out  of  this  reservation  the  Commis- 
sioners suggested  should  be  satisfied,  first,  the  claims  of  settlers 
not  recognized  by  Georgia,  and  then,  if  any  land  remained, 
the  Yazoo  buyers  under  the  act  of  1795.  The  sale  under  the 
law  of  1789  was  utterly  ignored.  The  report  was  accepted,  a 
bill  was  passed  regulating  the  disposal  of  land  in  Mississippi, 
a  tract  was  set  apart  to  quiet  claims  derived  from  any  act  or 
pretended  act  of  Georgia  Congress  might  see  fit  to  recognize, 
and  the  foundation  laid  for  one  of  the  most  memorable  con- 
tests in  the  history  of  Congress.*  In  1804,  in  1805,  in  1806, 
in  1807,  in  1808,  in  1809,  year  after  year,  the  Virginia  Yazoo 
Company,  the  South  Carolina  Yazoo  Company,  the  New  Eng- 
land Mississippi  Company,  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  f 
appealed  to  Congress  for  relief  under  the  act  of  March,  1803. 
But  year  after  year  every  effort  was  defeated  by  John  Ran- 
dolph. He  denounced  the  Settlement  Act  as  a  stain  on  the 
Statute  Book,  as  a  corrupt  job,  as  an  infamous  piece  of  legisla- 
tion forced  through  Congress  by  a  hired  lobby,  and  declared 
that  all  honesty,  all  purity  in  government,  was  gone  forever 
if  so  gross  an  outrage  on  decency  was  suffered  to  succeed. 
"Wearied  with  vain  efforts,  the  claimants  carried  their  case  to 
the  Supreme  Court,  and  in  1810,  in  the  case  of  Fletcher 
against  Peck,  obtained  a  decision  in  their  favor4  The  Georgia 
Land  Act  of  1795  was  then  declared  to  be  a  contract,  the  re- 
scinding act  of  1796  a  violation  of  the  contract,  and  therefore 
repugnant  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  But  four 
years  more  went  by  before  the  contest  ended,  and  Congress 

*  Act  of  Congress,  March  3,  1803. 

f  See  Memorial,  January  4,  1808.     See   also  petition  of  Governor  Sullivan, 
January  19,  1807.  $  6  Cranch,  p.  87. 


1802.  STATE  OF  OHIO  FOEMED.  133 

voted  eight  million  dollars  in  land  scrip  to  quiet  the  claim- 
ante.* 

For  two  years  after  the  settlement  with  Georgia  the  ceded 
territory  remained  unattached.  In  1804,  however,  it  was 
annexed  to  and  made  part  of  the  Territory  of  Mississippi, 
which  thenceforth  comprised  so  much  of  the  present  States 
of  Alabama  and  Mississippi  as  lies  north  of  the  parallel  of 
thirty-one  degrees,  f 

Great  events  meanwhile  had  taken  place  northwest  of  the 
Ohio.  Connecticut  had  given  up  her  claim  to  the  Western 
Reserve.  The  land  offices  had  been  opened ;  streams  of  Ger- 
mans, Scotch,  and  Irish  had  come  in  from  Pennsylvania,  and 
were  fast  spreading  over  the  military  bounty  lands ;  and  steps 
had  been  taken  to  admit  Ohio  into  the  Union  as  a  State. 
The  ordinance  of  1787  provided  that  out  of  the  Northwest 
Territory  might  be  made  not  less  than  three  nor  more  than 
five  States,  and  drew  the  boundary  of  each  of  them.  But  the 
third  Territorial  Legislature  had  scarcely  met  when  a  bill 
came  in  declaring  the  assent  of  the  Territory  to  a  change  in 
the  boundary  drawn  by  the  ordinance,  and  proposing  two  new 
lines  of  division.  The  eastern  State  was  to  be  divided  from 
the  middle  State  by  the  Scioto  river  to  the  Indian  boundary, 
and  a  line  from  the  Indian  boundary  to  the  southwest  corner 
of  the  Connecticut  Reserve.  The  middle  State  was  to  be 
parted  from  the  western  by  a  line  from  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio 
to  the  Chicago  river.  The  bill  was  a  Federal  bill,  planned  to 
delay  the  formation  of  a  State,  and  was,  by  the  Federalists, 
rushed  through  the  Council  and  the  Assembly  on  the  same  day. 
The  minority  protested.  The  people  denounced  the  act,  held 
meetings,  chose  a  committee  of  correspondence,  spread  peti- 
tions and  remonstrances  to  Congress  broadcast  over  the  Ter- 
ritory for  signature,  and  sent  two  agents  post-haste  to  Wash- 
ington to  oppose  the  bill  before  Congress. 

Once  at  Washington,  the  agents  found  their  work  quite 
easy.  The  Legislature  of  the  Territory  had  gone  too  far. 
Even  the  Federalists  would  not  support  it,  and  the  bill  giving 

*  Thirteenth  Congress,  Second  Session,  chap,  xxxix,  Act  of  March  31,  1814. 
f  Eighth  Congress,  First  Session,  chap.  1x5,  Act  approved  March  27,  1804,  sec- 
tion 7. 


134:         THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

assent  to  a  change  of  boundary  was  promptly  set  aside  by  a 
vote  of  eighty-one  to  five.  The  petitions  and  remonstrances 
meantime  had  been  coming  in.  These  were  now  sent  to  a 
committee  with  instructions  to  inquire  into  the  fitness  of  mak- 
ing the  Territory  a  State,  and  to  report.  The  committee  set 
to  work  at  once,  held  many  conferences  with  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  drew  up  a  report  and  formed  a  bill  for  which 
Gallatin  was  largely  responsible,  advised  that  an  enabling  act 
be  passed,  that  the  boundary  of  the  new  State  be  that  laid 
down  in  the  ordinance  of  ITS 7,  and  that  a  convention  of  dele- 
gates be  called  to  consider  the  propriety  of  forming  a  State 
government  at  the  present  time.  To  that  convention  were  also 
to  go  three  propositions  of  great  moment. 

As  provided  by  the  ordinance  of  1787,  States  made  out  of 
the  Northwest  Territory  could  lay  no  tax  on  lands  owned  by 
the  United  States.  Under  the  act  of  May  tenth,  1800,  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  was  selling  land  on  five  years' 
credit,  and,  as  the  patent  was  not  given  till  the  last  payment 
was  made,  and  as  Gallatin  held  that  till  the  patent  was  granted 
the  land  belonged  to  the  United  States,  he  construed  the  ordi- 
nance to  mean  that  no  land  sold  on  credit  should  be  taxed  for 
five  years  after  the  purchase.  This  he  believed  a  wise  policy, 
and  a  policy  that  might  well  be  carried  further.  Buyers  were 
wanted  for  the  public  domain,  and  nothing  seemed  more  likely 
to  bring  buyers  than  a  promise  that  the  half -sections  and 
quarter-sections  bought  from  the  Government  should  be  free 
from  taxation  by  Ohio  even  after  all  the  purchase-money  had 
been  paid.  Gallatin  suggested  that  the  term  be  ten  years,  and 
the  committee  so  recommended.  The  period  of  exemption 
would  then  be  fifteen  years.  That  Congress  could  exact 
this  from  Ohio  as  a  condition  of  admittance  into  the  Union 
was  never  for  a  moment  pretended.  It  was  a  proposal,  and 
nothing  more.  The  people  were  to  be  free  to  accept  or  reject 
it  as  they  saw  fit.  If,  however,  they  did  accept  it,  three  things 
were  promised  them.  The  people  of  each  township  should 
have  Section  Sixteen  for  the  use  of  schools.  The  State  should 
be  given  certain  salt  springs,  with  the  sections  they  were  in, 
for  the  use  of  the  people.  The  Government  of  the  United 
States  would  spend  on  road-making  one  tenth  of  the  net  pro- 


1802.  LAND  NOT  TAXED  BY   OHIO.  135 

ceeds  of  the  sales  of  public  land  in  Ohio.  Some  of  the  roads 
were  to  lie  in  the  State.  Some  were  to  join  her  eastern  bound- 
ary with  the  tide-waters  of  the  Atlantic.  To  this  plan,  as  a 
whole,  the  House  made  little  objection.  But  two  of  the  pro- 
visions were  strongly  and  bitterly  resisted.  On  the  one  hand 
were  those  who  affected  to  be  friends  of  the  men  who  bought 
their  farms  from  the  Ohio  Company,  from  John  Cleves  Symmes, 
from  the  Connecticut  Company,  or  at  auction  from  the  United 
States,  or  were  settled  on  the  Fire  Lands,  or  on  one  of  the  mili- 
tary reservations  of  the  Territory.  To  ask  the  new  State  to 
go  on  taxing  her  present  citizens,  and  exempt  for  fifteen  years 
the  lands  of  purchasers  after  June  thirtieth,  1802,  was,  they 
said,  unjust,  and  would  never  be  listened  to.  The  farms  of 
such  men  must  not  be  free  from  taxation  one  day  longer  than 
was  necessary  to  satisfy  the  ordinance  of  1787,  and  the  mean- 
ing put  by  the  Secretary  on  the  law  of  1800. 

On  the  other  hand  were  those  who  affected  to  have  at 
heart  the  interests  both  of  the  new  State  and  the  General  Gov- 
ernment. The  "West  needed  settlers.  Nothing  was  more  likely 
to  bring  settlers  than  an  offer  of  good  land  to  be  paid  for  in 
four  annual  instalments  and  free  from  taxation  for  years. 
This,  again,  would  be  good  for  the  United  States ;  for  what- 
ever brought  settlers  to  the  West  brought  money  to  the  United 
States  treasury.  The  public  domain  was  a  trust  to  be  used  by 
the  General  Government  for  the  payment  of  the  public  debt. 
Money  coming  from  land  sales  was  therefore  pledged,  and 
must  not  be  used  for  any  other  purpose.  To  promise  to  spend 
one  shilling  in  road-making  was  wasteful  and  wrong.  These 
men  insisted,  therefore,  that  this  provision  should  be  stricken 
out.  The  result  was  a  compromise.  Each  party  yielded  some- 
thing. The  one  agreed  that  the  term  during  which  land 
should  be  free  from  State  taxes  should  be  cut  down  to  five 
years  from  the  day  the  first  payment  became  due.  The  other 
consented  that  the  percentage  to  be  spent  on  roads  should  be 
reduced  from  one  tenth  to  one  twentieth  of  the  net  proceeds. 
These  matters  settled,  the  bill  was  passed  and  signed. 

None  of  these  provisions  applied  to  the  United  States  mili- 
tary lands,  nor  to  the  Yirginia  Military  Reservation,  nor  to 
the  Connecticut  Reserve,  nor  to  the  land  lying  beyond  the 


136         THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

Indian  boundary.  That  the  settlers  on  these  great  tracts 
should  be  left  without  some  provision,  at  least,  for  education 
seemed  unjust.  When,  therefore,  the  convention  to  form  the 
Constitution  of  Ohio  met,  and  considered  the  three  offers  of 
the  Government,  the  men  of  Ohio  in  turn  named  conditions 
to  Congress.  They  would  agree  to  lay  no  taxes  on  land  sold 
by  the  United  States  for  five  years  after  the  day  of  purchase. 
But  they  would  do  so  provided  Congress  would  spend  three 
per  cent,  of  the  net  proceeds  of  Ohio  sales  in  building  roads 
not  to,  but  in  the  State  ;  provided  the  title  to  all  school  lands 
was  vested  in  the  State  and  not  in  the  people  of  the  townships ; 
provided  that  a  township  should  be  given  Ohio  for  a  seminary 
in  place  of  the  township  promised  Symmes,  but  never  set 
apart ;  and  provided  that  land  equal  in  amount  to  one  thirty- 
sixth  of  the  Western  Reserve,  the  military  lands,  the  Virginia 
Reservation,  and  all  that  might  hereafter  be  obtained  from  the 
Indians,  should  be  vested  in  the  Legislature  for  the  use  of 
schools  in  such  tracts. 

When  these  propositions  were  put  into  a  bill  and  the  bill 
brought  before  Congress  they  called  out  some  ill-natured  re- 
marks from  a  Pennsylvania  member.  The  Ohio  lands  were 
the  common  property  of  all  the  States.  Virginia  had  given 
them  for  the  common  good.  They  were  pledged  to  pay  the 
revolutionary  debt.  What  right,  then,  had  Congress  to  put  its 
hands  into  the  common  fund,  lay  hold  of  a  part  of  it,  and  use 
that  part  for  the  sole  benefit  of  the  people  of  Ohio  ?  What 
right  had  Congress  to  spend  on  Ohio  roads  money  which  ought 
to  go  toward  paying  the  debt  of  the  whole  country  ?  Such  an 
act  was  an  assumption  of  power.  It  was  an  act  of  usurpation. 
John  Randolph  answered  him,  and  answered  him  fully,  and 
the  House,  without  more  ado,  sent  the  bill  to  the  Senate,  which 
passed  it  on  to  the  President,  who  signed  it  on  the  last  day  of 
the  session.* 

When  Congress  met  again,  Louisiana  had  been  purchased, 
and  an  unknown  number  of  millions  of  acres  of  land  added  to 
the  public  domain.  When  Congress  rose  again,  three  petitions 
for  new  Territories  had  been  presented  and  one  new  Territory, 

*  March  8,  1803. 


1805.  MICHIGAN  TERRITORY.  137 

that  called  Orleans,  had  been  made.  At  the  very  opening  of 
the  session  the  men  of  the  Illinois  country,  who  hated  Harrison 
and  longed  for  slaves,  entreated  Congress  to  cut  their  country 
off  from  Indiana  and  join  it  to  Louisiana.  A  month  later  the 
people  who  dwelt  about  the  Mobile,  the  Tombigbee,  and  the 
Alabama  rivers,  sent  in  a  paper  praying  for  a  division  of  the 
Mississippi  territory.  But  the  only  petition  that  was  heard 
with  favor  came  from  the  people  about  Detroit.  In  the  Senate 
their  prayer  had  many  friends,  and  by  them  a  bill  was  passed 
providing  for  a  new  Territory  in  the  Northwest.  In  the 
House  a  committee  considered  and  reported  against  it.  The 
bill  would,  they  said,  if  passed,  open  the  door  for  like  appeals 
from  all  parts  of  Louisiana  and  Mississippi.  But  the  House 
threw  out  the  report,  called  the  Territory  Michigan,  and  came 
within  one  vote  of  passing  the  Senate  bill.  At  the  next  ses- 
sion it  did  pass,  and  the  lower  peninsula  and  part  of  the  upper 
peninsula  of  Michigan  were  cut  off  from  the  public  domain  and 
made  a  Territory  of  the  first  grade.*  In  an  evil  hour  Jeffer- 
son sent  out  William  Hull  to  govern  it.  His  qualifications 
for  this  post  were  his  revolutionary  services,  for  his  career  as 
a  soldier  in  the  Continental  army  had  been  most  honorable  and 
enviable.  When  the  Revolution  opened,  Hull  was  a  young 
man  of  two-and-twenty,  just  beginning  the  practice  of  law. 
But  he  instantly  quit  his  profession,  raised  a  company  of  in- 
fantry, and  hurried  to  the  help  of  Washington  at  Cambridge. 
Thenceforth  no  military  event  happened  north  of  the  Potomac 
but  Hull  bore  a  part.  He  saw  Howe  evacuate  Boston.  He 
marched  with  the  army  to  New  York.  He  was  present  in  the 
battle  of  Long  Island,  and  in  the  retreat  up  the  Hudson,  was 
wounded  in  the  battle  of  White  Plains,  and  among  the  few 
who  escaped  capture  when  Lee  so  shamefully  surrendered  in 

*  The  boundaries  described  in  the  act  are :  "  All  that  part  of  the  Indiana 
Territory  which  lies  north  of  a  line  drawn  east  from  the  southerly  bend,  or  ex- 
treme, of.  Lake  Michigan,  until  it  intersect  Lake  Erie,  and  east  of  a  line  drawn 
from  the  said  southerly  bend  through  the  middle  of  said  lake  to  its  northern  ex- 
tremity, and  thence  due  north  to  the  northern  boundary  of  the  United  States, 
shall,  for  the  purpose  of  temporary  government,  constitute  a  separate  Territory, 
and  be  called  Michigan."  Act  approved  March  11,  1805.  It  is  clear,  from  the 
words  "  thence  due  north,"  that  part  of  the  northern  peninsula  was  included  ;  yet 
on  no  map  of  the  time  is  this  fact  indicated. 


138         THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

December,  1776.  Having  once  more  joined  Washington, 
Hull  was  with  him  in  the  passage  of  the  Delaware,  fought  at 
Trenton  and  at  Princeton,  and  spent  some  weeks  in  the  camp 
at  Morristown.  From  Morristown  he  was  sent  to  recruit  at 
Boston,  and  from  Boston,  in  April,  1777,  he  set  out  to  join 
St.  Clair  at  Ticonderoga.  Driven  from  Ticonderoga,  he  re- 
treated through  the  woods  of  New  York  to  the  army  of  Schuy- 
ler  on  the  Hudson,  went  with  Brooks  to  the  capture  of  Fort 
Stanwix,  and  was  with  Gates  at  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne. 
After  the  surrender  he  again  returned  to  Washington,  passed 
the  terrible  winter  at  Valley  Forge,  took  part  in  the  pursuit 
of  Howe,  fought  at  Monmouth,  and  the  next  winter  com- 
manded the  advanced  posts  near  New  York.  For  his  conduct 
under  Wayne  in  the  glorious  capture  of  Stony  Point,  Hull  was 
made  lieutenant-colonel  in  the  Massachusetts  line,  and  in  1783 
led  the  American  troops  on  their  entrance  into  New  York  city. 
Services  so  signal  deserved  and  received  a  signal  reward, 
and  when  the  Territory  of  Michigan  was  formed  in  1805,  Hull 
was  chosen  to  govern  it.  For  a  while  he  hesitated.  He  was 
an  old  man.  Life  on  the  frontier  was  severe.  To  go  west 
would  cost  him  many  comforts.  But  his  vanity  was  touched. 
He  accepted,  and,  with  all  the  speed  he  could,  set  out  for  De- 
troit, the  capital  city.  From  Boston  to  Detroit  the  journey 
may  now  be  made  with  almost  absolute  certainty  in  twenty 
hours.  In  1805  it  could  not  be  made  with  any  certainty 
in  twenty  days.  Every  rain  that  swelled  the  streams,  every 
drought  that  dried  them,  every  calm  on  the  lakes,  was 
sure  to  delay  the  traveller.  The  western  road  then  began 
at  Albany.  To  Albany,  therefore,  Hull  repaired,  went  up 
the  Mohawk  valley  to  Rome,  crossed  the  portage  to  Woods 
Creek,  went  down  the  creek  to  Oneida  Lake,  down  the  lake  to 
Oswego  river,  and  down  Oswego  river  to  Lake  Ontario.  A 
sailing  vessel  carried  him  thence  to  Lewiston.  Passing  around 
Niagara  Falls  to  Black  Rock,  he  once  more  took  boat  and  sailed 
up  Lake  Erie  to  Detroit.  It  was  on  the  first  of  July  that  he 
came  in  sight  of  the  place  and  beheld  from  the  deck  of  the 
ship  a  scene  of  utter  desolation.  No  troops  were  drawn  up  to 
receive  him  with  military  honors.  No  crowd  gathered  at  the 
landing  place  to  bid  him  welcome.  There  were  no  salutes,  no 


1805.  BURNING  OF  DETEOIT.  139 

cheers,  no  triumphal  entry.  Indeed,  there  was  no  city.  Three 
weeks  before,  a  fire  swept  over  Detroit  and,  save  a  warehouse 
and  a  bakery,  not  a  building  remained.  Some  of  the  inhabit- 
ants were  living  on  charity  in  the  French  settlements  across  the 
straits.  Some  were  with  the  settlers  on  the  Raisin  and  the 
Rouge.  Some  were  dwelling  in  tents  hard  by  the  ruins  of 
what  had  lately  been  their  homes.  The  city  on  the  day  of  'its 
destruction  consisted  of  a  mass  of  wooden  houses,  covering  a 
few  acres  of  ground,  parted  by  a  few  streets  fifteen  feet  wide, 
and  surrounded  by  a  strong  and  high  palisade.  To  rebuild  on 
th'e  old  plan  would,  it  was  admitted  by  every  one,  be  the  height 
of  folly.  But  to  rebuild  on  any  other  plan  seemed  impossible ; 
for  the  land  outside  of  what  had  once  been  the  palisade  was  pub- 
lic domain,  and  no  man  in  the  Territory  had  authority  to  sell 
it.  A  meeting  of  the  people  was  accordingly  held  to  determine 
what  to  do.  Some  were  for  going  back  to  the  old  sites  and 
the  old  plan.  The  majority  were  for  laying  out  a  great  and 
splendid  city,  taking  so  much  of  the  public  land  as  was  needed, 
and  trusting  to  Congress  to  approve  the  act.  The  meeting  was 
held  on  the  first  of  July,  the  very  day  on  which  the  territorial 
government  was  to  go  into  force.  As  the  Governor  had  not 
then  arrived,  the  people  were  addressed  by  the  Chief  Justice, 
who  had  reached  the  Territory  two  days  before.  He  reminded 
them  that  the  new  government  would  soon  be  in  force,  told 
them  that  Governor  Hull  would  soon  come,  and  urged  them 
to  be  patient  a  little  longer.  They  took  his  advice  and  agreed 
to  do  nothing  for  two  weeks.  That  evening  the  Governor 
arrived. 

His  first  work  was  to  lay  out  the  new  city  and  cut  it  up 
into  lots.  The  lots  were  then  put  up  for  sale  at  public  auc- 
tion, and,  when  enough  were  taken  to  satisfy  the  immediate 
needs  of  the  people,  the  sale  was  stopped.  For  the  best 
seven  cents  the  square  foot  was  paid.  Four  cents  was  the 
average  price.  If  the  buyer  owned  land  in  the  old  city  he 
exchanged  the  old  lots  for  new,  foot  for  foot,  and  paid  for 
the  excess,  if  there  was  any.  Most  of  the  people,  having 
been  tenants,  now  seized  with  eagerness  the  chance  to  become 
the  owners  of  land  and  houses.  They  were  reminded,  how- 
ever, that  the  action  of  the  Governor  was  without  the  sane- 


140         THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

tion  of  law ;  that  lie  had  no  right  to  take  the  public  lands  for  a 
city,  no  right  to  cut  it  up  into  building-sites,  no  right  to  offer 
it  for  sale,  and  that  they  could  not  get  a  title  without  an  act 
of  Congress.  Great  as  was  the  risk,  the  people  gladly  took  it, 
began  at  once  to  put  up  houses,  and  despatched  an  agent  to 
Washington  to  urge  their  suit  before  Congress.  The  Gov- 
ernor and  the  judges  made  a  long  report  to  Jefferson  ;  Jeffer- 
son sent  it  to  Congress,  and  Congress  soon  passed  an  act  for 
their  relief.  To  every  person  who,  on  the  day  of  the  fire, 
owned  a  house,  or  lived  in  a  house  in  Detroit,  who  was  seven- 
teen years  of  age,  and  who  owed  no  allegiance  to  any  foreign 
power,  was  given  a  lot  of  five  thousand  square  feet.  What- 
ever more  he  wished  he  might  buy,  and  the  money  arising 
from  such  sales  was  to  be  used  to  build  a  court-house  and  a 
jail. 

To  satisfy  this  grant,  ten  thousand  acres  were  set  apart  in 
addition  to  the  area  of  old  Detroit.  The  Governor  and  the 
judges  were  made  a  board  to  lay  out  the  new  town,  and  per- 
formed their  duty  in  a  manner  worthy  of  pedagogues.  For 
the  plan  they  selected  an  equilateral  triangle,  with  perpendicu- 
lars let  fall  from  the  three  angles  to  the  sides  opposite.  One 
of  the  sides  was  to  form  the  street  along  the  river,  and  was  to 
be  run  due  north  and  south.  One  of  the  perpendiculars 
would  therefore  be  due  east  and  west.  At  the  angle  where 
it  met  the  two  sides  was  to  be  an  immense  circular  space  seven 
hundred  feet  in  diameter,  called  the  Grand  Circus.  In  the 
centre  of  the  triangle,  where  the  three  perpendiculars  met, 
was  to  be  another  common,  called  the  Campus  Martins.  Much 
of  the  original  plan  was  long  since  obliterated ;  but  enough 
still  remains  to  enable  the  stranger  in  Detroit  to  locate  with 
ease  the  Circus,  the  Campus,  and  the  sides  of  the  great  tri- 
angle. Small  as  the  area  set  apart  for  the  town  now  seems, 
it  was  more  than  enough,  for  there  were  not  then  four 
thousand  white  people  in  the  whole  of  Michigan.  A  few 
families  were  at  Michilimackinaw,  a  few  at  Fort  Miami,  and  a 
few  scattered  over  the  Territory.  The  rest  were  strung  along 
the  east  coast  from  the  Ohio  boundary  to  Lake  Huron,  or 
along  the  rivers  Rouge  and  Raisin.  Their  farms,  after  the 
fashion  of  the  country,  were  laid  out  with  the  greatest  regu- 


1805.  LAND  TITLES  IN  MICHIGAN.  141 

larity.  The  road  ran  close  to  the  water's  edge.  Along  the 
road,  side  by  side,  were  the  farms,  each  forty  French  acres 
deep  and  from  two  to  five  French  acres  wide.  Close  to  the 
road  was  the  house.  Back  of  each  house  was  an  orchard,  and 
back  of  each  orchard  just  as  much  grain  as  the  needs  of  the 
family  required.  The  whole  number  of  such  farms  in  the 
Territory  was  four  hundred  and  forty-two.*  Of  these,  but  eight 
had  clear  and  regular  titles.  The  right  of  a  few  claimants 
went  back  to  grants  made  by  the  old  French  governors,  and 
confirmed  by  the  French  King.  Some  held  under  grants  made 
by  the  governors  but  not  confirmed  by  the  King.  Some  had 
taken  up  their  lands  by  leave  of  French  military  commanders, 
but  had  no  grants  nor  written  instruments  of  any  kind.  The 
rest  were  squatters  of  three  sorts  :  those  who,  without  leave  of 
anybody,  had  settled  on  the  land  when  Michigan  belonged  to 
the  French,  or  when  it  belonged  to  the  English,  or  after  it 
became  the  property  of  the  United  States.  So  long  as  the 
settlements  were  mere  outposts  of  civilization  the  people 
troubled  themselves  but  little  concerning  title  deeds  and 
grants.  But  now  that  the  community  began  to  put  in  force 
the  essentials  of  civil  government,  the  question  of  owner- 
ship became  very  serious.  Courts  had  been  opened.  Laws 
were  to  be  enforced.  The  rights  both  of  the  Government 
and  the  individual  were  to  be  more  carefully  guarded.  What, 
then,  it  was  asked,  was  to  become  of  men  who,  without  a 
shadow  of  legality,  had  entered  on  the  domain  of  the  United 
States  ?  "What  of  men  who,  taking  the  law  into  their  own 
hands,  had  made  treaties  with  the  Indians,  had  extinguished 
the  native  right  to  the  soil,  and  had  built  houses  and  laid  out 
farms  on  the  land  so  obtained  ? 

The  people,  in  their  anxiety,  repeatedly  urged  the  Govern- 
ment to  do  something.  Grand  Jury  after  Grand  Jury  present- 
ed addresses  on  the  need  of  a  quieting  act.  Hull  dwelt  at 
length  on  the  matter  in  his  first  report  to  Jefferson.  The 

*  Between  Detroit  and  Lake  St.  Clair  were  sixty-three.  In  the  Indian  coun- 
try north  of  St.  Glair  were  one  hundred  and  twenty-three.  South  of  Detroit  to 
the  Raisin,  mostly  at  Frenchtown,  were  one  hundred  and  sixty-three.  South  of 
the  Raisin,  along  Lake  Erie,  were  seventy-five.  The  rest  were  scattered  over  the 
Tcrritorv. 


142         THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

militia  companies  sent  their  officers  to  a  convention  at  Detroit, 
and  the  convention,  as  representing  the  people,  addressed  the 
President,  and  begged  the  Governor  and  one  of  the  judges  to 
go  to  Washington  in  their  behalf.  But  nothing  was  done  for 
them.  When  this  was  known  in  Michigan  another  convention 
was  held  and  another  address  drawn  and  sent,  this  time  to 
Congress.  Then  their  complaints  were  heard,  and  in  the 
bundle  of  acts  Jefferson  signed  on  the  last  day  of  the  second 
session  *  of  the  ninth  Congress  was  one  for  the  settlement  of 
land  claims  in  Michigan.  Another  gave  sixteen  hundred  acres 
each  to  the  explorers  Meriwether  Lewis  and  William  Clarke, 
and  double  pay  and  three  hundred  and  twenty  acres  to  every 
man  who  marched  with  them  to  the  Pacific,  f 

In  1792,  the  very  year  in  which  Captain  Grey  discovered 
the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  river,  Jefferson  urged  the 
American  Philosophical  Society  to  send  a  couple  of  explorers 
into  the  country  where  is  now  its  source.  The  sum  required 
was  not  great,  yet  nine  years  went  by  before  enough  was 
raised  to  make  the  expedition  possible.  A  young  officer 
named  Meriwether  Lewis  was  then  selected,  and  with  him  was 
joined  a  Frenchman  named  Andre"  Michaux.  Michaux  was  a 
botanist  of  repute  and  had,  in  the  autumn  of  1801,  come  over 
from  France  to  study  the  plants  and  trees  of  the  United  States. 
But  the  two  got  no  further  than  Kentucky  when  a  letter  from 
the  French  Minister  bade  Michaux  give  up  the  expedition  and 
study  botany  elsewhere.  He  obeyed,  for  he  had  in  a  measure 
been  sent  out  by  Chaptal,  the  French  Minister  of  the  Interior. 
The  disappointment  of  Lewis  was  great ;  but  he  was  soon 
consoled  with  the  place  of  Private  Secretary  to  the  President. 

While  he  held  this  post  a  fine  chance  opened  for  se- 
curing the  long-wished-for  expedition.  The  act  establishing 
trading  posts  among  the  Indian  tribes  was  soon  to  expire. 
Jefferson  was  desirous  that  the  new  law  should  extend  the 
system  to  the  Indians  on  the  Missouri,  and  made  this  a  pretext 
for  urging  the  exploration  of  the  river  from  its  mouth  to  its 
source.  The  money  was  granted.  Meriwether  Lewis  was 
again  put  in  command,  and  chose  for  his  second  William 

*  March  3,  1807.  t  March  3» 


1805.  EXPLORATION  OF  LEWIS  AND  CLARKE.  143 

Clarke.  Jefferson  drew  their  instructions,  and,  after  many 
weeks  spent  in  careful  preparation  and  many  more  lost  in 
unavoidable  delay,  the  party  reached  Cahokia  in  December, 
1803.  To  go  at  that  time  of  year  was  impossible.  The  winter 
was  therefore  passed  in  camp  on  the  Illinois  side  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi river,  just  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Missouri.  Their 
instructions  bade  them  go  up  the  Missouri  to  its  source,  find 
out  if  possible  the  fountains  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  true 
position  of  the  Lake  of  the  Woods ;  cross  the  Stony  Mountains, 
and,  having  found  the  nearest  river  flowing  into  the  Pacific, 
go  down  it  to  the  sea.  All  along  the  way  the  great  features 
of  nature,  mouths  of  rivers,  falls,  rapids,  islands,  portages 
were  to  be  carefully  located  by  astronomical  means.  A  study 
was  to  be  made  of  Indian  life.  "What  tribes  were  met  with, 
what  language  they  spoke,  what  food  they  ate,  what  laws 
and  customs  prevailed  among  them,  what  they  did,  and  what 
they  believed,  were  all  to  be  fully  noted  down.  The  animals 
encountered,  the  minerals  found,  the  botany  and  the  physical 
geography  of  the  country  were  likewise  to  be  described.  Nor 
were  they  to  fail  to  notice  what  kind  of  portage  lay  between 
the  waters  flowing  into  the  Gulf  and  the  waters  flowing  into 
the  Pacific,  and  whether  as  good  furs  could  not  be  had  about 
the  sources  of  the  Missouri  as  were  bought  from  the  Indians 
on  the  Columbia. 

Early  in  May,  1804,  the  explorers  broke  camp  and  set  off 
in  three  boats  loaded  with  trinkets  for  the  Indians.  By 
November  they  reached  the  Mandan  villages,  not  far  from  the 
present  city  of  Bismarck.  There  the  winter  was  passed.  Re- 
suming the  journey  in  the  spring  of  1805,  they  pushed  up  the 
Missouri,  crossed  North  Dakota,  crossed  Montana,  and  near  the 
present  town  of  Gallatin  came  to  three  branches.  These  they 
named  Gallatin,  Madison,  and  Jefferson,  names  still  given 
them  on  the  maps.  Taking  the  Jefferson  branch,  they  fol- 
lowed it  to  its  source  in  the  Bitter  Root  Mountains  and  slaked 
their  thirst  at  what  seemed  to  be  the  source  of  the  Missouri 
river.  Crossing  the  divide,  they  came  some  hours  later  to 
another  spring,  and  drank  for  the  first  time  of  the  waters  of 
the  Pacific  slope.  They  were  at  the  head-waters  of  what  they 
called  Lewis,  but  what  is  now  known  as  the  Salmon  river.  Un- 


144         THE  USES  MADE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  CHAP.  xvi. 

able  to  push  their  way  down  this,  they  turned  backward  and 
wandered  through  the  mountains  to  Bitter  Root  river.  Down 
the  valley  of  this  stream  they  went  to  a  spot  not  far  from  its 
junction  with  the  Flathead ;  named  the  place  Traveller's 
Rest,  and,  turning  westward,  went  over  a  mountain  pass 
to  Clear  "Water  river.  The  Clear  Water  bore  them  to  the 
Snake,  the  Snake  to  the  Columbia,  and  the  Columbia  to  a  spot 
where,  late  in  November,  they  "  saw  the  waves  like  small 
mountains  rolling  out  in  the  sea."  Winter  was  spent  on  the 
Pacific  coast.  With  spring  the  explorers  retraced  their  steps 
to  Traveller's  Rest,  where  the  party  was  divided.  Lewis  with 
one  band  went  off  to  the  sources  of  the  Maria  river ;  Clarke 
with  another  band  went  down  the  Yellowstone.  In  Septem- 
ber, 1806,  both  parties  were  once  more  at  St.  Louis. 

While  Lewis  and  Clarke  were  thus  seeking  for  the  sources 
of  the  Missouri  and  the  Columbia  in  the  mountains  of  Mon- 
tana, Zebulon  Pike  was  exploring  the  sources  of  the  Missis- 
sippi in  Minnesota.  Leaving  St.  Louis  in  August,  1805,  he 
made  his  way  slowly  up  the  Mississippi,  lived  all  winter 
among  the  Indians  and  the  agents  of  the  Northwest  Fur 
Company,  explored  the  cluster  of  lakes  that  feed  the  great 
river,  and  decided  the  main  source  to  be  Lake  Le  Sang  Sue.  In 
April,  1806,  Pike  was  back  at  St.  Louis.  There  a  new  and 
yet  more  arduous  duty  was  given  him.  lie  was  to  escort  a 
delegation  of  Indian  chiefs  to  their  villages  on  the  Osage 
river.  He  was  to  visit  the  tribes  that  dwelt  along  the  Arkan- 
sas and  the  Red,  and,  if  possible,  persuade  the  Comanches  to 
come  to  a  conference  at  St.  Louis.  On  July  fifteenth  he  started. 
His  route  was  by  boat  up  the  Missouri  to  the  Osage,  and  up 
the  Osage  to  the  village  of  the  Indians  he  was  escorting. 
There  he  took  horse,  went  southward  to  the  source  of  the 
Osage,  and  then  northwestward  across  the  present  Indian 
Territory,  crossed  the  Yerdigris  river  and  the  Kansas  river, 
traversed  the  State  of  Kansas,  and  reached  a  point  on  the 
Republican  river  in  Nebraska.  Then  he  turned  southward 
and  struck  the  Arkansas  river  not  far  from  the  ninety-ninth 
meridian.  Pushing  up  the  Arkansas  to  a  point  near  Den- 
ver, he  measured  the  height  of  the  peak  that  now  bears  his 
name,  crossed  the  mountains,  crossed  the  Platte,  came  to  the 


1805.  EXPLORATION  OF  PIKE.  145 

Big  Horn,  explored  the  sources  of  the  Arkansas,  and  began  a 
vain  search  for  the  Red.  Determined  to  find  it,  he  built  a 
block-house  on  the  banks  of  the  Arkansas,  filled  it  with  pro- 
visions and  cumbersome  baggage,  and  went  on  westward  and 
southward.  The  march  was  a  terrible  one.  It  was  the  depth 
of  winter.  The  cold  was  intense.  The  snow  was  waist- 
deep.  The  men,  half  clad,  depended  for  food  on  the  buffa- 
loes ;  but  the  buffaloes  had  left  the  plains  and  taken  refuge  in 
the  mountains.  To  the  sufferings  caused  by  cold  were  thus 
added  the  sufferings  caused  by  hunger.  Often  they  were 
forty-eight  hours  without  food.  Once  Captain  Pike  was  on 
the  point  of  perishing  from  starvation.  Two  of  his  men  had 
their  feet  so  frozen  that  the  bones  came  through  the  flesh. 
Even  then  he  would  not  give  way.  Leaving  them  in  a  rude 
camp,  he  pushed  on  southward  till  late  in  January,  180T,  he 
saw  through  a  gap  in  the  mountains  the  waters  of  the  Rio 
Grande.  Supposing  it  to  be  the  Red,  he  hurried  to  its  banks, 
selected  a  spot  on  one  of  its  feeders,  put  up  a  strong  fort,  and 
sent  back  for  his  disabled  companions  and  his  baggage.  Be- 
fore they  came,  the  Spaniards  were  upon  him  in  force.  Find- 
ing himself  on  Spanish  soil,  he  submitted  and  was  taken  to 
Santa  Fe.  There  the  Governor  of  New  Mexico  examined 
him  and  sent  him  to  the  commandant  at  Chihuahua.  Dis- 
missed by  him,  Pike  and  his  company  took  the  longest  and 
safest  route  home,  went  south  far  into  Mexico,  and,  turning 
northward,  crossed  the  Rio  Grande,  traversed  Texas,  and  Julj 
first  reached  the  American  fort  at  Natchitoches  on  the  Red 
river. 


11 


14:6  THE  SPREAD  OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  XYII. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE   SPREAD   OF   DEMOCRACY. 

THE  admission  of  Ohio  into  the  Union  as  a  State  was  at- 
tended with  no  general  demonstrations,  and  aroused  very  little 
interest  beyond  her  own  bounds.  Yet  every  Republican  observ- 
er of  days  and  seasons,  every  Republican  who,  on  the  fourth 
of  each  March  and  the  fourth  of  each  July,  heard  speeches 
and  drank  toasts  in  honor  of  the  triumph  of  Jeffersonian  prin- 
ciples and  the  rights  of  man,  might  well  have  marked  the  ad- 
mission of  Ohio.  The  adoption  of  her  Constitution  was  a 
political  event.  It  was  another  triumph  for  the  rights  of  man ; 
another  victory  in  that  great  struggle  on  the  results  of  which 
are  staked  the  dearest  interests  of  the  human  race.  No  person 
could,  in  1803,  look  over  our  country  without  beholding  on  every 
hand  the  lingering  remains  of  monarchy,  of  aristocracy,  of  class 
rule.  But  he  must  indeed  have  been  a  careless  observer  if 
he  failed  to  notice  the  boldness  with  which  those  remains  were 
attacked,  and  the  rapidity  with  which  they  were  being  swept 
away.  In  the  seaboard  States — in  the  States  which,  with  the 
advice  of  the  Continental  Congress  of  1776,  took  up  civil  gov- 
ernment and  formed  constitutions  in  the  early  days  of  the 
Revolutionary  War — very  little  of  what  would  now  be  called 
democracy  existed.  Everywhere  the  political  rights  of  man 
were  fenced  about  with  restrictions  which  would  now  be 
thought  unbearable.  The  right  to  vote,  the  right  to  hold 
office,  were  dependent  not  on  manhood  qualifications,  but  on 
religious  opinions,  on  acres  of  land,  on  pounds,  shillings,  and 
pence.  Voters  must  own  land  or  property,  rent  a  house,  or 
pay  taxes  of  some  sort.  Here  the  qualification  was  fifty  acres 
of  land  *  or  personal  property  to  the  value  of  thirty  pounds. 

*  Maryland,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina. 


1790.  LIMITATION  OF  SUFFKAGE. 

There  it  was  a  white  skin,  and  property  to  the  value  of  ten 
pounds.  In  one  State  it  was  a  property  tax.*  In  another  the 
voter  must  be  a  quiet  and  peaceable  man,  with  a  freehold  of 
forty  shillings  or  personal  estate  worth  forty  pounds.  To  be 
enfranchised  in  South  Carolina,  the  free  white  man  must  be- 
lieve in  the  existence  of  a  God,  in  a  future  state  of  reward 
and  punishment,  and  have  a  freehold  of  fifty  acres  of  land. 
To  vote  in  New  York  he  must  be  seized  of  a  freehold  worth 
twenty  pounds,  York  money,  or  pay  a  house  rent  of  forty 
shillings  a  year,  have  his  name  on  the  list  of  tax-payers,  and 
carry  in  his  pocket  a  tax  receipt.  In  Massachusetts  the  re- 
quirements were  a  freehold  estate  yielding  three  pounds  a  year 
income,  or  the  possession  of  any  estate  worth  sixty  pounds. 
In  Connecticut  they  were  an  annual  income  of  seven  dollars 
from  a  freehold,  or  real  estate  rated  on  the  tax  list  at  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty-four.  In  New  Jersey  the  franchise  became  in 
time  unintentionally  broad.  Drawn  and  accepted  in  the  space 
of  ten  days,  the  Constitution  had  never  undergone  a  careful 
revision.  Many  phrases  in  consequence  were  fairly  susceptible 
of  a  construction  very  different  from  the  intention  of  those 
who  wrote  them,  and  none  more  so  than  the  words  which 
gave  the  ballot  to  "  all  inhabitants  of  the  State "  who  were 
twenty-one  years  old  and  owned  fifty  pounds  proclamation 
money,  clear  estate.  Property,  age,  and  residence  were  the 
sole  qualifications.  Not  a  word  was  said  concerning  sex,  race, 
or  citizenship,  and  during  thirty-one  years  women,  negroes, 
and  aliens  were  free  to  vote.  That  they  did  vote  is  partly 
proved  by  the  traditions  in  many  families  of  a  great-grand- 
mother or  great-grand-aunt  who  went  year  after  year  to  the 
polls,  but  chiefly  by  the  law  of  1807  which  restricted  the  fran- 
chise to  free  white  males,  and  declared  in  the  preamble  that 
this  limitation  was  made  because  women,  negroes,  and  aliens 
had  been  allowed  to  vote.  The  same  law  further  provided 
that  the  payment  of  State  or  county  tax  should  be  the  equiva- 
lent of  fifty  pounds,  clear  estate. 

But  the  right  to  vote,  even  when  secured,  did  not  by  any 
means  carry  with  it  the  right  to  hold  office.     Thousands  of 

*  Pennsylvania. 


148  THE  SPREAD  OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  xvn. 

men  who,  on  election  days,  came  to  the  polls  were  by  law 
hopelessly  debarred  from  ever,  in  the  whole  course  of  their 
lives,  holding  the  office  of  sheriff,  or  taking  a  seat  on  the 
bench,  or  becoming  a  member  of  the  Legislature,  or  reaching 
the  high  place  of  Governor  of  a  State.  No  atheists,  no  free- 
thinkers, no  Jews,  no  Roman  Catholics,  no  man,  in  short,  who 
was  not  a  believer  in  some  form  of  the  Protestant  faith,  could 
ever  be  Governor  of  New  Jersey  or  New  Hampshire,  Con- 
necticut or  Vermont.  Any  rich  Christian  might  be  the  ex- 
ecutive of  Massachusetts  or  of  Maryland.  Elsewhere  he  must 
be  a  Trinitarian  and  a  believer  in  the  inspiration  of  the  Script- 
ures, or  a  Protestant  and  a  believer  in  the  divine  authority 
of  the  Bible,  or  acknowledge  one  God,  believe  in  heaven  and 
in  hell,  and  be  ready  to  declare  openly  that  every  word  in  the 
Testaments,  both  Old  and  New,  was  divinely  inspired.  Not 
content  with  restrictions  such  as  these,  the  constitutions  of 
many  States  went  further  and  required  that  the  Governor 
should  be  not  only  pious,  but  rich.  In  one  he  must  have  an 
estate  of  one  hundred,  in  another  of  five  hundred,  in  another 
of  five  thousand,  in  another  of  ten  thousand  pounds ;  in  yet 
others  he  must  own  two  hundred  and  fifty  or  five  hundred 
acres  of  land.  For  a  seat  in  either  branch  of  the  State  Legis- 
latures qualifications  were  of  the  same  kind.  The  people  of 
New  Plampshire  thought  it  necessary  that  each  senator  should 
be  seized  in  his  own  right  of  a  freehold  estate  worth  two  hun- 
dred pounds,  and  each  representative  an  estate  of  one  hundred 
pounds.  Massachusetts  placed  her  requirements  higher  yet, 
and  would  suffer  no  man  to  become  a  member  of  the  upper 
branch  of  her  General  Court  who  did  not  have  a  freehold  of 
three  hundred  pounds  or  personal  property  of  six  hundred. 
For  the  lower  branch  the  sum  was  one  third  as  great.  Men 
who  aspired  to  a  seat  in  the  Council  of  New  Jersey,  to  the 
Senate  of  Delaware,  to  the  Senate  of  Maryland,  must  own  one 
thousand  pounds  of  real  or  personal  estate,  or  in  Delaware 
two  hundred  acres  of  land.  South  of  Pennsylvania  the  land 
qualification  was  general.  Senators  in  North  Carolina  owned 
three  hundred  acres ;  representatives  in  South  Carolina  must 
have  five  hundred  acres  and  ten  negroes ;  and  in  Georgia  two 
hundred  and  fifty  acres  and  support  the  Protestant  religion. 


1800.  EXTENSION  OF  THE  FRANCHISE.  H9 

In  four  States  no  priest,  no  minister  of  any  creed,  could  hold 
a  civil  office.*  The  duty  of  such  men  was  to  serve  God,  not 
man.  They  were  therefore  strictly  enjoined  to  concern  them- 
selves with  things  spiritual,  and  leave  the  care  of  tilings  tem- 
poral to  laymen. 

Against  such  restrictions  not  a  voice  seems  to  have  been 
lifted.  But  the  leaven  of  the  Kevolution  was  quietly  at  work, 
and  one  by  one  they  were  slowly  swept  away.  First  to  go 
was  the  religious  qualification ;  and  when  the  Continental  Con- 
gress framed  the  ordinance  of  1787,  no  qualification  was  ex- 
acted from  the  Governor  and  the  Judges,  the  Secretary  and 
the  voters,  other  than  age,  residence,  and  the  ownership  of 
land  in  the  Territory.  In  that  same  year  came  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  and  seemingly  a  great  step  backward 
was  taken,  for  no  man  could  vote  for  a  member  of  the  House 
who  could  not  vote  for  a  member  of  the  most  numerous  branch 
of  his  State  Legislature,  and  all  the  restrictions  imposed  on 
suffrage  by  the  constitutions  of  the  States  were  thus  reimposed 
by  the  constitution  of  the  United  States.  Happily,  the  recoil 
was  of  short  duration.  It  was  a  recoil,  not  a  general  ebb,  and 
in  a  little  while  the  current  was  again  running  strongly  in  the 
old  direction.  During  the  ten  years  which  followed  the  inaugu- 
ration of  Washington  eight  constitutions  were  made  or  amend- 
ed, and  by  almost  every  one  the  rights  of  man  were  extended. 

Pennsylvania  cast  away  her  religious  test  as  worthy  of  the 
dark  ages,  and  left  the  ballot  in  the  hands  of  every  tax-paying 
male.  South  Carolina  ceased  to  require  her  voters  to  be  good 
Protestants,  and  opened  the  polls  to  Catholics.  New  Hamp- 
shire abolished  forever  the  religious  qualification  once  exacted 
of  her  Governors  and  her  legislators,  took  off  the  poll-tax,  and 
gave  suffrage  to  every  male  inhabitant  twenty-one  years  old. 
Delaware  enfranchised  every  free  white  man  who  had  resided 
two  years  in  the  State  and  had  paid  his  taxes,  and  no  longer 
asked  him  if  he  believed  in  the  existence  of  the  Trinity  and  in 
the  divine  inspiration  of  the-  Testaments.  In  Kentucky  and 
Vermont  the  reform  went  further  yet,  and  by  the  constitu 
tions  of  those  States  manhood  suffrage  was,  for  the  first  time 

*  New  York,  Delaware,  Maryland,  Georgia.  In  Georgia  the  prohibition  was 
limited  to  the  Assembly. 


150  THE  SPREAD  OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  xvn. 

in  our  history,  made  part  of  the  political  system  of  the  United 
States.  In  Kentucky  any  free  white  man ;  in  Vermont  any 
man,  black  or  white,  who  was  of  age  and  had  lived  one  year 
in  the  State,  could  vote.  Georgia  deprived  her  Governor  of 
the  aristocratic  title  of  Honorable,  dispensed  with  religious 
qualification  for  civil  officers,  and  relieved  her  voters  of  the 
necessity  of  owning  ten  pounds  of  property.  New  Jersey  was 
the  next  to  feel  the  impulse,  and  in  the  last  months  of  the 
century  an  earnest  effort  was  made  to  reform  her  Constitution 
of  government.  That  instrument  had  been  hastily  framed 
before  the  Declaration  of  Independence  had  been  declared,* 
and  was  intended  to  be  temporary,  and  expressly  recognized 
the  authority  of  Great  Britain  over  New  Jersey.  It  was 
"  We,  the  delegates  of  the  colony  of  New  Jersey,"  who  framed 
"  the  government  of  this  province."  f  One  article  ordered  a 
great  seal  "  for  the  colony " ;  another  commanded  all  writs 
and  commissions  to  run  "  in  the  name  of  the  colony  " ;  another, 
that  all  indictments  should  conclude  "  against  the  peace  and 
dignity  of  the  colony  "  ;  still  others,  that  every  official  should 
swear  allegiance  to  the  colony,  and  that  the  opening  words  of 
every  law  should  read,  "Be  it  enacted  by  the  Council  and 
General  Assembly  of  this  Colony " ;  J  and  that  the  Constitu- 
tion should  remain  inviolate.  But  it  had  not  been  kept  invi- 
olate. No  writ  ran  in  the  name  of  "  this  colony."  No  seal,  no 
law,  no  commission,  no  oath  anywhere  administered,  contained 
the  word.  That  this  was  legal  the  reformers  denied  ;  but  the 
faults  which  called  forth  their  strongest  protest  and  their 
heartiest  denunciation  were  the  loose  principles  on  which  the 
rights  of  electors  and  the  elected  rested.  "  All  inhabitants  of 
this  colony  of  full  age,  who,"  said  the  Constitution,  "  are 
worth  fifty  pounds  proclamation  money,  clear  estate,"  shall 
vote.  Is  not  a  woman,  said  the  reformers,  is  not  an  alien,  is 

*  The  recommendation  of  Congress  to  form  a  temporary  Government  was 
taken  up  June  21,  1776;  the  Constitution  was  accepted  July  2,  177G. 

f  July  18,  1776,  it  was  "Kesolved,  That  this  House  from  henceforth,  instead 
of  the  style  and  title  of  the  Provincial  Congress  of  New  Jersey,  do  adopt  and  as- 
sume the  style  and  title  of  the  Convention  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey." — Journal 
of  the  Votes  and  Proceedings  of  the  Provincial  Congress  of  New  Jersey,  July  18, 
1776,  p.  75. 

J  Changed  by  laws  of  September  20,  1777 ;  December  16,  1783. 


1800.  CONSTITUTION  OF  NEW  JERSEY.  151 

not  a  convict,  living  in  TTew  Jersey,  an  inhabitant,  and  may 
they  not  legally  vote  ?  The  Council  and  the  Assembly,  says 
our  Constitution,  "  shall  elect  some  fit  person  "  to  be  Governor. 
May  they  not,  if  they  think  fit,  choose  a  child  or  a  jail-bird, 
or  native  of  Europe,  just  landed  on  our  shores.*  Among  the 
reforms  demanded,  and  they  were  many,  were  therefore  limi- 
tations on  the  suffrage  and  on  the  right  to  hold  office.  But 
the  spirit  of  democracy  was  abroad ;  the  people  would  listen 
to  no  restrictions,  and  the  old  Constitution  lived  forty-five 
years  longer. 

Thus  was  it  that  between  the  day  when  "Washington  was 
inaugurated  President  at  New  York  and  the  day  when, 
mourned  by  the  whole  people,  he  was  carried  to  his  grave, 
many  of  the  old  limitations  of  the  inalienable  rights  of  man 
were  effaced  from  the  law  of  the  land.  In  general,  it  may  be 
said  that  church  and  state  were  parted ;  that  religion  ceased 
to  be  a  qualification  for  civil  office ;  that  the  property  quali- 
fication was  greatly  reduced  ;  and  that  the  democratic  princi- 
ple of  universal  suffrage  was  spreading  fast. 

With  the  opening  of  the  new  century  came  what,  in  the 
toasts  of  the  day,  was  fondly  called  the  triumph  of  democratic 
principles.  That  it  was  a  real  triumph  and  not  a  mere  party 
success  ;  that  new  ideas  did  take  hold  on  the  minds  of  men ; 
that  new  truths  were  discovered ;  that  society  did  go  forward ; 
that  a  great  reform  in  manners,  in  customs,  in  institutions,  in 
laws  was  under  way ;  that  the  day  when  there  should  be  in 
this  country  a  government  of  the  people  by  the  people,  was 
beginning  to  break,  must  not  for  one  moment  be  doubted. 
East  of  the  Alleghanies  long-established  precedents,  time- 
honored  usages,  the  presence  of  a  ruling  class,  the  thousand 
hindrances  which  beset  every  reform,  checked  the  spread  of 
the  new  faith.  West  of  the  Alleghanies  no  such  difficulties 
were  met.  It  is  therefore  with  feelings  of  peculiar  interest 
that  we  should  consider  the  first  Constitution  of  Ohio.  It  was 
the  handiwork  not  of  men  laboring  to  reform  old  abuses,  but 

*  Eumenes ;  being  a  Collection  of  Papers  written  for  the  purpose  of  exhibiting 
some  of  the  more  Prominent  Errors  and  Omissions  of  the  Constitution  of  New 
Jersey,  .  .  .  and  to  prove  the  Necessity  of  calling  a  Convention  for  Revision  and 
Amendment.  Trenton,  1799. 


152  THE  SPREAD  OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  xvn. 

of  men  free  to  set  up  just  such  a  government  as  to  them 
seemed  best.  It  was  the  full  expression  of  the  most  advanced 
ideas  of  free  government. 

Many  of  its  features  show  a  close  resemblance  to  the 
constitutions  then  in  force.  There  was  a  long  bill  of  rights, 
there  was  a  schedule,  there  was  the  old  division  of  powers 
granted  into  legislative,  executive,  and  judicial.  But,  while 
old  forms  were  retained,  new  ideas  were  incorporated.  The 
Governor  was  stripped  of  all  power  and  patronage.  He 
made  no  nominations ;  he  exercised  no  veto ;  he  signed  no 
bills ;  he  had  no  share  in  legislation  ;  and,  save  in  the  case  of 
the  Adjutant-General,  or  when  a  vacancy  occurred  during  a  re- 
cess of  the  Legislature,  he  appointed  no  man  to  office.  The 
House  and  Senate  sitting  in  the  same  chamber  filled  all  civil 
offices  and,  what  was  far  more  important,  elected  judges  to 
serve  for  seven  years.  There  were  indeed  some  States  in 
which  the  Governor  possessed  no  veto,*  there  were  others 
in  which  he  appointed  no  man  to  office,  f  and  there  were  yet 
others  in  which  the  tenure  of  the  judge  was  a  fixed  term  of 
years.:}:  But  never  before  had  these  three  attributes  of  democ- 
racy been  brought  together  in  one  and  the  same  State  consti- 
tution. Of  all  remnants  of  monarchy,  the  life  tenure  of 
office  was  to  the  Democrats  the  most  flagrant  and  offensive. 
"Why,  they  would  ask,  should  this  be?  Why  should  we 
change  our  rulers  every  few  years  and  not  our  judges  ?  If  it 
is  dangerous  to  liberty  to  entrust  men  with  long-continued 
power  to  make  laws,  is  it  not  equally  dangerous  to  liberty  to 
entrust  men  with  long-continued  power  to  interpret  laws  ?  Is 
there  anything  in  the  judicial  office  which  renders  the  judge 
insensible  to  the  evils  which  afflict  the  legislator?  There 
surely  is  not.  Indeed,  it  is  a  question  whether,  in  such  a  sys- 
tem as  ours,  the  judge  is  not  particularly  liable  to  acquire 
them.  While  all  else  in  the  State  is  mutable,  he  is  immuta- 

*  Delaware,  South  Carolina,  Tennessee. 

•f  Rhode  Island,  North  Carolina,  and  Tennessee. 

\  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  where  the  judges  were  appointed  annually ; 
Vermont,  where  they  were  elected  annually  "  or  oftcner  if  need  be  "  ;  in  New  Jer- 
sey, where  the  tenure  was  seven  or  five  years ;  and  in  Georgia,  where  it  was  three 
years. 


1800.  LIFE-TENURE   ATTACKED.  153 

ble.  All  about  him  he  sees  presidents,  Congresses,  governors, 
assemblies,  sheriffs,  mayors  come  into  office,  have  their  day 
and  go  out  of  office,  while  he  sits  undisturbed  on  the  bench. 
As  a  result  of  this  he  soon  begins  to  look  on  himself  as  the 
one  indispensable  part  of  the  machinery  of  government.  He 
is  a  highly  privileged  man,  and  in  a  little  while  thinks  himself 
a  member  of  a  caste,  of  an  aristocracy.  Is  not  all  this  directly 
opposed  to  the  great  principle  of  responsibility  to  the  people 
which  lies  at  the  base  of  all  representative  government  ? 

As  State  after  State  went  over  from  Federalism  to  Repub- 
licanism, the  question  assumed  a  political  importance  before 
unknown.  Then  it  was  pronounced  monstrous  that  a  change 
of  party  should  not  be  followed  by  a  change  of  party  men. 
Earnest  Democrats  could  not  brook  the  sight  of  old  Federal- 
ists holding  commissions  in  the  peace,  presiding  at  Courts  of 
Quarter  Session  and  sitting  as  justices  on  the  bench  of  courts 
of  last  resort,  long  after  every  other  Federalist  office-holder 
had  been  driven  into  private  life.  In  Pennsylvania,  where  the 
franchise  was  widely  extended  and  the  Democrats  most  nu- 
merous and  active,  the  feeling  ran*high,  and  there  the  Demo- 
cratic victory  of  1799  was  at  once  followed  by  an  assault  on 
the  independent  judiciary. 

In  that  commonwealth  the  judicial  power  was  vested  in  a 
Supreme  Court  whose  jurisdiction  extended  over  the  entire 
State ;  in  courts  of  oyer  and  terminer  and  general  jail  delivery ; 
in  five  courts  of  common  pleas  whose  jurisdiction  was  limited 
to  circuits  of  from  three  to  six  counties ;  in  orphans'  courts, 
registers'  courts,  courts  of  quarter  session,  and  in  justices  of 
the  peace.  On  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  sat  four  judges, 
who  held  office  during  good  behavior,  but  were  removable  for 
serious  offences  by  impeachment,  for  trivial  offences  by  the 
Governor  on  the  address  of  two  thirds  of  both  branches  of  the 
Legislature.  For  each  of  the  five  courts  of  common  pleas  there 
was  a  "  president  judge  "  who  rode  the  circuit  of  his  counties, 
holding  now  a  court  of  common  pleas,  now  a  court  of  oyer  and 
terminer,  now  an  orphans'  court,  now  a  registers'  court.  On  all 
such  occasions  he  was  assisted  in  each  county  by  a  bench  of 
three  or  four  county  judges,  likewise  removable  by  impeach- 
ment or  address.  The  president  judges  were  men  of  ability 


154:         THE  SPREAD  OF  DEMOCRACY.     CHAP.  xvn. 

and  well  read  in  the  law.  But  no  such  qualifications  were 
thought  necessary  in  the  county  judges,  who  were  in  general 
laymen,  and  the  worst  kind  of  laymen,  small  politicians.  The 
drunkenness,  the  brawling,  the  neglect  of  duty,  the  airs  which 
these  men  assumed,  and  the  petty  spite  they  exhibited  toward 
such  political  opponents  as  came  within  their  power,  made 
them  more  hateful  to  the  people  than  the  excise  collector  or 
the  assessors  of  the  direct  tax.  They  were  all  Federalists.  To 
complain  of  them  to  a  Federal  governor  and  a  Federal  Senate 
would  have  been  useless.  But  the  moment  Thomas  McKean 
was  chosen  Governor,  the  moment  the  Senate  passed  into  Re- 
publican hands,  complaints  and  demands  for  relief  came  up 
from  every  part  of  Pennsylvania.  Two,  during  the  heated 
campaign  of  1800,  had  sat  quietly  on  the  bench  while  a  clerk 
of  quarter  sessions  was  well  pummelled  by  a  political  enemy. 
On  another  occasion  a  judge  had  quit  the  bench,  gone  down 
into  the  crowd,  and  engaged  in  a  fist  fight  with  a  man  he 
claimed  had  insulted  him.  Two  others  had  prevented  the 
sitting  of  a  court  by  staying  away.  Still  another  had  forged  a 
name  to  the  acknowledgment  to  a  deed.  In  Wayne  County  a 
judge  had,  by  main  strength,  dragged  a  colleague  from  the 
bench  and  kept  him  from  attending  Court.  As  a  class,  they 
were  well  described  in  a  petition  to  the  Legislature,  which  de- 
clared them  to  be  destitute  of  all  legal  knowledge,  burdensome, 
and  expensive.  The  justices  of  the  peace  seem  to  have  been 
worse  yet.  Many  were  tavern-keepers.  A  few  were  charged 
with  keeping  houses  of  ill-fame.  That  they  were  grossly  ig- 
norant and  grossly  unjust  cannot  be  doubted.  The  Legislature 
having  taken  up  the  most  flagrant  of  these  cases,  and  the  Gover- 
nor having  made  a  few  removals,  some  fierce  Democrats  were 
encouraged  to  attack  the  president  judge  of  their  circuit,  whose 
ruin  had  been  carefully  planned. 

This  man  was  Alexander  Addison.  Born  in  Ireland  and  edu- 
cated in  Scotland,  he  was  by  profession  a  preacher,  and  had, 
before  he  emigrated  to  America,  been  licensed  by  the  Presby- 
tery of  Aberlowe.  He  seems,  however,  to  have  been  early  at- 
tracted to  the  United  States,  and,  soon  after  the  close  of  the  war 
for  independence,  crossed  the  ocean  and  went  at  once  to  the 
Scotch-Irish  settlements  about  the  sources  of  the  Ohio.  There, 


1800.  JUDGE-BREAKING  IN  PENNSYLVANIA.  155 

in  1785,  the  Redstone  Presbytery  licensed  him  to  preach  within 
their  jurisdiction.  But  the  people  of  that  region  were  just 
then  much  more  concerned  with  politics  than  with  religion. 
Should  Spain  be  allowed  to  close  the  Mississippi  to  citizens  of 
the  United  States  ?  Should  the  Articles  of  Confederation  be 
amended  ?  Should  Congress  be  suffered  to  drive  settlers  from 
the  country  north  of  the  Ohio  ?  Should  the  Constitution  be 
adopted  ?  These  were  the  questions  which  kept  the  people  in 
a  ferment.  Catching  the  popular  excitement,  Addison  quickly 
turned  from  religion  to  politics,  brushed  up  his  knowledge  of 
law,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Alleghany  County,  and  gave  a 
warm  support  to  the  Federal  side  of  every  question.  This,  in 
the  Western  country,  was  the  unpopular  side.  When,  there- 
fore, the  Judiciary  Act  was  passed  by  Pennsylvania,  in  1791, 
Addison  was  rewarded  for  his  services  with  the  place  of  presi- 
dent judge  of  the  Courts  of  Common  Pleas  within  the  fifth 
circuit.  His  politics,  his  belief  in  a  strong  government,  his  de- 
fence of  every  Federal  measure,  from  the  funding  system  and 
the  bank  to  the  whiskey  tax,  the  British  treaty  and  neutrality, 
would  have  been  more  than  enough  to  have  made  him  the 
most  hated  man  in  Alleghany  County.  But  the  lectures  on 
politics  which  he  delivered  from  the  bench  made  him  simply 
unendurable.  The  subject  of  one  charge  was  the  Causes  and 
Error  of  Complaints  and  Jealousy  of  the  Administration  of  the 
Government.*  In  the  course  of  his  remarks  he  told  the  jury 
and  the  crowd  that  they  were  confounding  the  right  to  judge 
with  the  ability  to  judge  ;  that  while  they  had  the  legal  right 
they  certainly  had  not  the  ability  ;  and  that  their  complaints 
against  the  Government  were  just  in  proportion  to  their  igno- 
rance. In  another  charge  he  reviewed  the  Alien  Act,f  and 
in  a  third  the  Sedition  Law4  Enraged  beyond  endurance  at 
these  repeated  scoldings,  the  people  of  Alleghany  County 
petitioned  the  Legislature  in  March,  1800,  for  a  committee 

*  Causes  and  Error  of  Complaints  and  Jealousy  of  the  Administration  of  the 
Government ;  being  a  Charge  to  the  Grand  Juries  of  the  Counties  of  the  Fifth 
Circuit  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  at  March  Sessiifas,  1797. 

f  Charge  to  the  Grand  Juries  of  the  County  Court  of  the  Fifth  Circuit  of  the 
State  of  Pennsylvania,  at  December  Session,  1798. 

J  The  Liberty  of  Speech  and  of  the  Press.  A  Charge  to  Grand  Juries.  By 
Alexander  Addison.  1798. 


156  THE  SPREAD   OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  xvn. 

to  hear  charges  against  him  and  report  to  the  next  session. 
That  Addison  knew  of  the  petition  is  most  likely.  But 
the  Presidential  election  was  at  hand,  political  animosity  was 
running  high,  and  he  gave  it  no  heed.  Indeed,  at  the  Decem- 
ber session  of  the  courts  his  charge  was  more  offensive  to  his 
hearers  than  ever.  He  called  it  the  Rise  and  Progress  of 
Revolutions.*  The  revolutions  then  going  on  in  Europe 
were,  he  said,  not  the  work  of  a  day,  but  of  a  long  and  system- 
atic course  of  operations  on  public  opinion.  This  course  of 
operations  was  detailed  in  a  book  called  "  Memoirs  for  illus- 
trating the  History  of  Jacobinism,"  a  book  the  Judge  declared 
to  be  well  worth  reading. 

From  these  memoirs  it  appeared  that  three  great  conspira- 
cies had  been  planned  and  accomplished.  First  came  the 
Anti-Christian  Conspiracy,  which  overthrew  Religion  and  the 
Church.  Then  came  the  Anti-monarchical  Conspiracy,  which 
pulled  down  the  throne.  And  lastly  the  Anti-social  Conspira- 
cy, which  had  undermined  the  whole  social  fabric.  The  work 
of  the  three  classes  of  conspirators  had  been  done  by  means 
of  books  and  pamphlets  distributed  gratis,  by  debating  socie- 
ties, by  philosophers,  by  Jacobin  clubs,  and  Illuminers,  or  Illu- 
minati.  The  Judge  then  went  on  to  show  that  precisely  the 
same  agents  were  at  work  in  this  country,  and  that  they  would, 
unless  checked  speedily,  bring  about  precisely  the  same  conse- 
quences Paine  and  his  "  Age  of  Reason "  represented  the 
Anti-Christian  Conspiracy.  The  libellous  press  and  the  Demo- 
cratic societies  represented  the  Anti-governmental  Conspiracy, 
while  the  Society  of  United  Irishmen  were  the  Illuminati  aim- 
ing at  the  ruin  of  society. 

This  was  too  much.  The  day  of  tame  submission  was 
gone,  and,  when  Addison  had  read  his  charge  to  a  Grand 
Jury  in  Alleghany  County,  one  of  the  judges  rose  and  at- 
tempted to  make  a  reply,  f  He  was  a  Frenchman  named  John 
B.  C.  Lucas,  who,  as  a  devoted  friend  of  Hugh  II.  Bracken- 
ridge,  the  leader  of  the  Pittsburg  Republicans,  had  a  few 

*  Rise  and  Progress  of  Revolution.  A  Charge  to  the  Grand  Juries  of  the 
County  Courts  of  the  Fifth  Circuit  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  at  December  Ses- 
sion, 1800.  By  Alexander  Addison,  President  of  those  Courts. 

f  December  22,  1800. 


1803.  JUDGE-BREAKING  IN  PENNSYLVANIA.  157 

months  before  been  made  judge  by  Governor  McKean.  But 
Lucas  had  scarcely  uttered,  in  broken  English,  the  words 
"  Gentlemen  of  the  jury,"  when  Addison  stopped  him  and 
bade  him  sit  down,  for  it  was  a  rule  of  the  Court  that  the 
president  judge  alone  should  address  the  jury.  Lucas  yielded 
quietly.  But  Brackenridge,  well  knowing  that  Addison  had 
no  right  to  stop  him,  forced  Lucas  to  carry  his  grievance  to 
the  Supreme  Court  and  move  for  leave  to  file  an  information. 
This  was  refused,  and  Lucas,  instigated  by  Brackenridge, 
led  Addison,  at  the  next  session  *  of  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas,  to  aggravate  the  offence  yet  more.  Nor  was  this  all, 
for,  when  the  Court  of  Quarter  Sessions  of  the  Peace  met  in 
June,  the  old  scene  was  again  enacted,  f  Thinking  that 
enough  had  now  been  done  to  justify  impeachment,  Bracken- 
ridge persuaded  his  friends  in  the  counties  of  Addison's  cir- 
cuit to  petition  the  Legislature  to  remove  the  offensive  judge 
from  office.  After  considering  the  papers  a  committee  assured 
the  House  that  Addison  had  been  guilty  of  a  gross  usur- 
pation of  authority ;  that  if  one  judge  could  with  impunity 
arrogate  to  himself  powers  which  belonged  to  his  associates, 
the  independence  of  the  county  judges  was  destroyed ;  and 
that,  in  their  opinion,  he  ought  to  be  impeached.  The  House 
accordingly  impeached  him ;  the  Senate,  in  January,  1803, 
tried  him,  found  him  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  ordered  him 
removed  and  disqualified  ever  again  to  hold  the  office  of  judge 
in  any  court  in  Pennsylvania.^:  Two  weeks  later  the  Repre- 
sentatives were  earnestly  besought  to  impeach  three  justices 
of  the  Supreme  Court.* 

There  was  then  living  in  Philadelphia  a  man  named  Thomas 
Passmore.  He  began  life  as  a  mechanic,  but  by  thrift  and  in- 
dustry had  made  money,  which  he  invested  in  commercial  en- 
terprises. To  protect  himself  against  loss  he  had,  after  the 
fashion  of  the  time,  employed  a  number  of  underwriters  to 

*  March  28,  1801.  f  June  22,  1801. 

t  Trial  of  Alexander  Addison,  President  of  the  Courts  of  Common  Pleas,  in 
the  Fifth  Circuit  ....  on  an  Impeachment,  by  the  House  of  Representatives, 
before  the  Senate  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania.  Taken  in  short-hand 
by  Thomas  Lloyd.  1803. 

*  Journal  of  the  Pennsylvania  House  of  Representatives,  February  28,  1803. 


158  THE  SPREAD  OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  xvn. 

cover  the  risk  of  his  adventures  on  the  sea.  One  of  his  ships, 
happening  to  spring  a  leak,  put  into  a  port  of  Nova  Scotia, 
where,  the  bill  of  repairs  amounting  to  more  than  half  the 
policy,  Passmore  abandoned  the  vessel  and  called  on  the  under- 
writers to  pay  the  insurance.  Holding  that  repairs  so  exten- 
sive proved  the  ship  unseaworthy  when  the  insurance  was 
obtained,  one  firm  refused,  persuaded  the  rest  to  do  like- 
wise, and  during  seven  months  the  policy  remained  unsatis- 
fied. Passmore  then  brought  suit;  but  the  defaulting  firm 
proposing  that  the  case  be  submitted  to  arbitrators,  a  rule  of 
the  court  for  an  amicable  action  was  obtained,  arbitrators  ap- 
pointed, and,  in  time,  a  judgment  in  favor  of  Passmore  was 
given.  By  the  rules  of  the  Supreme  Court,  exceptions  might 
be  taken  within  four  days ;  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  no  excep- 
tions were  filed  for  thirty  days.  Knowing  nothing  of  this, 
Passmore,  soon  after  the  exceptions  were  entered,  went  to  the 
Coffee  House,  and  there,  in  an  abusive  paper,  posted  the  re- 
fractory firm  of  underwriters.  The  proprietor  tore  it  down, 
gave  it  to  the  libelled  underwriter,  who  carried  it  to  the  Court, 
before  which  Passmore  was  summoned  to  appear  and  answer 
for  contempt.  He  came,  was  told  that  he  had  committed  an 
enormous  libel,  and  bidden  to  apologize  to  the  men  he  had 
injured.  This  he  stoutly  refused  to  do,  and  was,  in  conse- 
quence, fined  fifty  dollars  and  thrown  into  jail  for  thirty 
days. 

Smarting  under  this  harsh  treatment,  Passmore  complained 
to  the  Legislature.  The  committee  to  whom  the  memorial 
was  sent  reported  that  the  summary  mode  of  punishing  con- 
tempt, as  laid  down  in  the  English  books,  and  as  practised  in 
the  English  courts,  was  not  suitable  to  the  Constitution  and 
the  laws  of  Pennsylvania.  Every  decision  of  facts  by  courts 
of  law  without  the  intervention  of  a  jury  was,  in  their  opinion, 
a  step  towards  aristocracy,  the  most  oppressive  of  arbitrary 
governments.  Such  conduct  by  the  courts,  unless  stopped, 
would  gradually  but  surely  undermine  trial  by  jury,  the  great 
bulwark  of  liberty.  They  recommended,  therefore,  a  bill  to 
define  contempt.  But  the  judge-breakers  were  not  to  be  de- 
prived of  their  prey,  and  secured  a  reference  to  a  special 
committee,  from  whom  came  a  recommendation  that  the  next 


1805.  JUDGE-BREAKING  IN  PENNSYLVANIA.  159 

House  make  an  investigation.  This  the  next  House  did,  and 
impeached  Edward  Shippen,  Jasper  Yeates,  and  Thomas 
Smith,  the  three  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  who  sat  at 
the  trial  of  Passmore.  And  now  the  whole  community  took 
alarm.  For  the  moment  politics  were  forgotten,  and  all  over 
the  State  lawyers,  judges,  men  of  wealth,  men  of  education 
and  refinement,  made  common  cause  against  the  Democrats. 
When  the  Legislature  passed  a  bill  reforming  the  whole  judi- 
ciary system  the  Democratic  Governor  returned  it  with  his 
veto.  When  the  managers  of  the  impeachment  soiight  among 
the  Democratic  lawyers  for  counsel,  neither  Alexander  Dallas, 
nor  Jared  Ingersoll,  nor  Peter  Duponceau,  nor  any  lawyer  of 
note  in  Pennsylvania  would  serve  them.*  When  Hugh  H. 
Brackenridge,  the  only  Democratic  judge  on  the  supreme 
bench,  wrote  to  the  Legislature,  told  them  that  he  approved 
of  the  action  of  the  Court  in  the  Passmore  case,  and  asked  to 
be  impeached,  the  Legislature  called  on  the  Governor  to  re- 
move the  judge  for  insolence ;  but  again  the  Governor  re- 
fused to  comply.  When  the  Senate  tried  the  impeachment, 
the  judges,  by  a  vote  of  thirteen  to  eleven,  were  declared  not 
guilty. 

For  years  past  no  event  had  occurred  which  so  aroused  the 
people.  The  cry  for  reform  which  now  went  up  was  such  as 
had  not  been  heard  since  the  days  of  the  Alien  and  Sedition 
Laws.  British  common  law,  it  was  said,  had  triumphed.  The 
sovereignty  of  the  people,  the  rights  of  man,  the  Constitution 
and  the  laws  of  Pennsylvania,  were  henceforth  to  be  subject  to 
the  customs  and  usages  of  British  courts.  When  had  there 
ever  been  so  fine  an  illustration  of  the  corrupting  influence  of 
office  held  by  appointment  and  for  long  terms  ?  Time  was 
when  the  people  had  no  truer  friend  than  Thomas  McKean. 
Yet  had  not  he,  after  six  years  of  office-holding,  forgotten  the 
people  and  twice  defied  their  will  as  set  forth  by  their  repre- 
sentatives ?  Was  Alexander  Dallas,  the  Republican  lawyer  of 
1800,  the  same  man  as  Alexander  Dallas,  the  District  Attorney, 
refusing  to  plead  for  the  people  in  1805  ?  Was  Brackenridge, 
the  leader  of  the  whiskey  rebellion,  the  same  man  as  Bracken- 

*  For  counsel  they  finally  secured  Caesar  A.  Rodney,  of  Delaware. 


160  THE  SPREAD   OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  xvn. 

ridge  the  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  begging  to  be  im- 
peached ?  "Was  Thomas  Cooper,  the  earnest  Republican,  suf- 
fering fine  and  imprisonment  under  the  Sedition  Law,  the  same 
man  as  Judge  Thomas  Cooper,  of  Northumberland,  applauding 
the  conduct  of  the  Senate  ?  Nay,  could  any  one  have  believed 
that  a  few  short  months  of  power  would  have  turned  the 
Republican  Senate  which  convicted  Judge  Addison  into  the 
Republican  Senate  which  acquitted  Judges  Shippen,  Yeates, 
and  Smith  ?  Could  any  man  say,  in  the  face  of  all  this,  that 
an  independent  judiciary,  long  tenures  of  office,  and  places  for 
which  the  people  did  not  choose  the  incumbent  were  repub- 
lican institutions  ? 

Maddened  by  defeat  and  honestly  convinced  that  evils 
existed  for  which  a  remedy  must  speedily  be  found,  the  Re- 
publicans cried  out  for  a  convention  to  amend  the  Constitution. 
Strangely  enough,  while  that  document  provided  for  amend- 
ment it  made  no  mention  of  the  way  in  which  the  mending 
should  be  done.  But  Duane,  who  still  edited  the  Aurora,  was 
at  no  loss  for  a  way.  The  will  of  the  people  was  supreme. 
The  people,  therefore,  should  bid  the  Legislature  call  a  con- 
vention ;  the  Legislature,  acting  on  this  authority,  should  issue  a 
call,  and  the  convention,  when  it  met,  should  make  the  amend- 
ments and  submit  them  to  the  people  for  ratification.  To 
express  the  will  of  the  people  to  the  Legislature,  petitions  from 
all  parts  of  the  State  were  needed.  A  Society  of  Friends  of 
the  People  was  therefore  formed,  a  short  constitution  drawn 
up,  a  committee  of  correspondence  chosen,  a  model  petition 
framed,  and  appeals  sent  out  for  Democrats  in  every  county 
to  organize  like  societies  and  send  like  petitions  to  the  Legisla- 
ture without  delay.  Taking  the  hint,  the  friends  of  the  Gov- 
ernor formed  a  society,  called  themselves  Constitutional  Re- 
publicans, and,  before  a  month  had  passed,  great  bundles  of 
petitions  bearing  thousands  of  names  and  praying  that  a  con- 
vention be  not  called  reached  the  Legislature. 

Our  constitution,  said  the  Friends  of  the  People,  has  been 
in  force  fifteen  years.  During  that  time  experience  has  shown 
it  to  possess  many  excellencies  and  many  defects.  Among 
these  defects  is  a  tendency  to  produce  in  officials  a  sense  of 
irresponsibility  to  the  people.  The  patronage  of  the  Governor 


1805.  A  NEW  CONSTITUTION  DEMANDED.  161 

is  too  extensive  ;  his  veto  power  is  too  great ;  he  should  come 
more  often  before  the  people  for  election.  The  term  of  a 
Senator  should  be  reduced.  The  whole  judicial  system  should 
be  reformed  and  justice  be  made  speedy,  sure,  and  cheap. 
The  petitions  of  the  Constitutional  Republicans  denied  that 
any  of  these  reforms  were  needed,  declared  the  Constitution 
good  enough,  and  asked  that  a  convention  be  not  called.  The 
action  of  the  House  was  worthy  of  Wouter  Yau  Twiller. 
Hearing  that  the  petitions  in  favor  of  a  convention  was  seventy- 
four,  that  they  came  from  eleven  counties  and  bore  forty-nine 
hundred  and  forty-four  names ;  that  the  number  against  a  con- 
vention was  eighty-nine ;  that  they  came  from  nine  counties 
and  were  signed  by  fifty-five  hundred  and  ninety  names ;  it 
decided  that  in  the  face  of  this  showing  it  was  best  to  do  noth- 
ing, and  referred  the  whole  matter  to  the  people. 

To  refer  the  matter  to  the  people  was  easy  enough,  for  the 
election  of  a  governor  was  then  at  hand.  In  ordinary  times 
such  an  election  would  have  been  tame  enough,  for  the  Re- 
publican majority  was  thirty  thousand.*  But  the  quarrel 
which  had  long  been  going  on  among  the  leaders  now  spread 
to  the  voters ;  a  great  schism  took  place,  and  the  Republican 
party  in  Pennsylvania  was  rent  in  twain.  The  Republican 
members  of  the  Senate  and  House,  before  the  Legislature  rose, 
met  in  caucus  and  nominated  Simon  Snyder  for  Governor. 
The  Constitutionalists  renominated  Thomas  McKean.  The 
campaign  that  followed  was  such  as  the  State  had  not  seen 
since  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  before  it  for 
adoption  or  rejection.  There  was  indeed  some  abuse.  Mc- 
Kean was  denounced  for  his  nepotism,  for  the  use  of  his 
veto  power,  for  refusing  to  remove  Judge  Brackenridge  when 
asked  to  do  so,  and  for  having  called  the  people  clodhoppers 
and  geese.  Snyder  was  held  up  to  laughter  as  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Dutchman  of  tradition.  But  the  real  question  at  issue 
was :  Shall  the  State  Constitution  be  amended  ?  During  four 
months  the  newspapers  were  filled  with  essays,  letters,  appeals, 
long  addresses  from  committees  of  correspondence,  and  long 
resolutions  passed  at  public  meetings.  Comparative  studies 

*  The  vote  in  1802  was  :  Federal,  17,125  ;  Republican,  47,567. 
VOL.  in. — 12 


162  THE  SPREAD   OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  XVH. 

were  made  of  other  State  constitutions.  The  evils  of  the  veto 
power,  the  evils  of  the  English  common  law,  the  evils  of  the 
appointing  power,  the  evils  of  allowing  judges  to  pronounce 
on  the  constitutionality  of  laws,  were  discussed  most  fully. 
The  remedy  suggested  was  to  elect  the  Governor,  the  senators, 
and  the  judges  every  two  years,  have  all  appointments  made 
by  a  committee  of  the  Assembly,  and  provide  for  the  settle- 
ment of  suits  by  arbitration.  But  it  was  of  no  avail.  When 
election  day  came,  five  thousand  more  votes  were  cast  for 
McKean  than  for  Snyder,  and  the  attempt  to  secure  a  conven- 
tion was  given  up.* 

The  struggle  for  judicial  reform  thus  begun  by  the  Re- 
publicans of  Pennsylvania,  found  many  imitators  elsewhere 
In  New  Jersey  murmurs  were  again  heard  that  the  time  had 
come  for  the  people  of  those  States  to  make  a  new  Constitu- 
tion. In  Connecticut  an  effort  was  made  to  reform  not  merely 
the  judicial,  but  the  legislative  and  the  executive  branches  of 
government,  indeed,  to  make  a  brand  new  Constitution.  In 
Maryland  the  people  repeatedly  amended  their  Constitution, 
extended  the  franchise,  made  the  governorship  an  elective 
office,  and  swept  away  the  General  Court  and  the  Court  of 
Appeals.  So  terrible  did  these  encroachments  of  democracy 
seem  that  Justice  Samuel  Chase,  of  the  United  States  Su- 
preme Court,  while  riding  his  circuit,  denounced  them  from 
the  bench  to  the  people  of  Baltimore.  His  remarks,  to  say 
the  least,  were  most  uncalled  for.  He  was  a  citizen  of  the 
State,  and  as  such  might  well  take  a  lively  interest  in  her 
political  welfare,  and  was  fully  entitled  to  express  his  opinion 
at  the  proper  time  and  place.  But  the  charging  of  a  jury 
was  not  the  proper  time,  nor  the  bench  of  a  circuit  court 
the  proper  place  for  the  expression  for  such  opinions.  This 
the  Democrats  well  knew,  and  promptly  demanded  that  Chase 
be  broken.  To  secure  his  impeachment  was  easy,  for  the 
Republicans  undertook  nothing  more  readily  than  an  attack 
on  the  odious  Federal  judiciary.  Thrice  already,  since  they 
came  into  power,  had  they  assailed  it,  and,  though  they  could 

*  The  vote,  and  it  was  the  largest  yet  cast  in  Pennsylvania,  was :  McKean, 
43,644  ;  Snyder,  38,433 ;  "  Saml "  Snyder,  395  ;  total,  82,472.  Aurora,  Decem- 
ber 21,  1805. 


1801.  FEDERAL  JUDICIARY  ATTACKED.  163 

not  destroy,  they  had  maimed  it,  defaced  it,  and  left  on  it  the 
marks  of  their  unreasonable  hatred. 

The  act  of  September  twenty-fourth,  1789,  establishing  the 
judiciary,  provided  for  district  courts,  circuit  courts,  and  one 
Supreme  Court,  over  which  presided  a  bench  of  six  judges. 
At  first  the  district  courts  were  thirteen  in  number ;  one  for 
Maine,  one  for  Kentucky,  and  one  for  each  of  the  eleven 
States  then  composing  the  Union.  On  the  bench  of  each  sat 
one  judge  who  held  four  sessions  annually.  From  the  de- 
cisions of  a  district  judge,  should  the  money  involved  be  suffi- 
cient, an  appeal  lay  to  one  of  the  circuit  courts,  where  twice 
a  year  cases  were  tried  before  two  justices  of  the  Supreme 
Court  and  the  district  judge  of  the  district  in  which  the 
Court  was  sitting.  These  circuit  courts  were  three  in  number : 
the  eastern,  comprising  New  Hampshire  and  Massachusetts, 
Connecticut  and  New  York  ;  the  middle  circuit,  in  which 
lay  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Maryland,  and 
Virginia ;  and  the  southern  circuit,  in  which  were  South  Caro- 
lina and  Georgia.  In  Maine  and  Kentucky  the  district  courts 
were  given,  with  a  few  exceptions,  the  powers  of  the  circuit 
courts.  From  a  circuit  court,  in  turn,  an  appeal  might  be 
carried  to  the  Supreme  Court,  composed  of  a  chief  justice 
and  five  associate  justices,  who,  in  February  and  August  of 
each  year,  held  court  at  the  seat  of  government. 

As  new  States  were  admitted  into  the  Union,  new  district 
courts  were  opened.  But,  with  these  exceptions,  the  judiciary 
underwent  no  change  for  twelve  years.  Then,  in  the  closing 
days  of  John  Adams's  term,  the  old  law  of  1789  was  repealed. 
Six  circuit  and  twenty-two  district  courts  were  established; 
a  provision  was  made  that  the  first  vacancy  in  the  associate 
justiceships  should  not  be  filled ;  the  district  courts  of  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee  were  abolished ;  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court 
were  no  longer  required  to  ride  on  circuit.  That  duty  was 
to  be  done  by  sixteen  circuit  judges,  of  whom  three  were 
assigned  to  each  of  five  circuits  and  one  to  the  sixth. 

Such  was  the  organization  of  the  Federal  Court  when, 
March  fourth,  1801,  the  Republicans  came  into  power.  To 
them  the  whole  Federal  judiciary  was  hateful  for  four  rea- 
sons. In  the  first  place,  the  Supreme  Court  had  attacked 


164  THE  SPREAD   OF  DEMOCRACY.  OHAP.  xva. 

State  sovereignty,  had  asserted  the  suability  of  a  State,  and 
had  attempted  to  drag  Georgia  before  it  as  a  defendant.  In 
the  second  place,  not  only  the  Supreme  Court,  but  the  circuit 
courts  had  set  themselves  up  as  final  arbiters,  and  had  pro- 
nounced on  the  constitutionality  both  of  State  laws  and  of 
Federal  laws.  In  the  third  place,  judges  were  independent  of 
the  people,  held  office  for  life,  and  could  not  be  removed  save 
by  the  ponderous  machinery  of  impeachment.  In  the  fourth 
place,  the  Judiciary  Act  of  1801  was  a  piece  of  defiant  legis- 
lation ;  an  attempt  to  make  life  offices  for  a  host  of  Federal 
judges.  The  first  session,  therefore,  of  the  first  Congress 
under  Jefferson's  administration  was  not  suffered  to  close  till 
the  judiciary  was  a  second  time  reformed.  To  abolish  the 
Supreme  Court  was  not  possible  ;  but  to  cripple  its  working 
was  quite  possible,  and  it  was  crippled  by  abolishing  the 
August  term,  and  by  again  sending  the  justices  wandering 
over  the  country  on  circuits.  To  take  an  innocent  judge  away 
from  his  office  was  not  possible ;  but  to  take  the  office  from 
him  was  held  to  be  quite  constitutional,  and  the  sixteen  circuit 
judgeships  were  abolished,  and  the  district  judgeships  rear- 
ranged in  six  new  circuits. 

The  second  attack  was  made  by  Jefferson,  and  was  directed 
against  the  judiciary  of  the  District  of  Columbia.  As  then 
marked  out,  the  District  was  precisely  ten  miles  square,  lay 
partly  in  Maryland  and  partly  in  Yirginia,  and,  by  the  first 
Congress  that  ever  met  at  Washington  city,  was  divided  into 
two  counties  separated  by  the  Potomac  river.  So  much 
as  happened  to  be  in  Yirginia  was  organized  as  Alexandria 
County.  So  much  as  happened  to  be  in  Maryland  was  called 
the  County  of  "Washington.  In  each  the  President  was  to 
appoint  as  many  justices  of  the  peace  as  he  thought  proper, 
to  hold  office  during  five  years.*  Exercising  this  discretion, 
Adams,  on  the  second  of  March,  1801,  sent  to  the  Senate  the 
names  of  four  men,  two  to  be  justices  in  each  county,  f  The 
four  thus  nominated  were  William  Marbury,  Dennis  Ramsey, 
Robert  Townsend  Hooe,  and  William  Harper.  Late  on  the 

*  Act  of  February  27,  1801. 

f  Executive  Journal  of  the  Senate,  March  2,  1801. 


1802.  JUDGE-BREAKING  IN   NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  165 

third  the  Senate  approved,  and  toward  midnight  the  four  com- 
missions, duly  made  out,  were  signed  by  the  President,  were 
sealed  by  Marshall  as  Secretary  of  State,  and  lay  on  his  table 
when  James  Madison  succeeded  him.  These  were  the  famous 
"  midnight  judges."  Every  step,  the  passage  of  the  law  by 
both  Houses,  the  nomination  of  the  men  by  the  President, 
the  approval  by  the  Senate,  the  signing  and  the  sealing  of  the 
commissions,  was  regular  and  according  to  law.  Yet,  in  the 
eyes  of  Jefferson,  the  commissions  were  null  and  void.  By  a 
process  of  reasoning  peculiar  to  himself,  he  admitted  that  the 
power  of  Adams  to  sign  acts  of  Congress  continued  to  the 
fourth  of  March,  1801,  but  asserted  that  the  power  of  Adams 
to  sign  commissions  ended  on  the  twelfth  of  December,  1800, 
the  day  whereon  men  first  felt  sure  that  the  Republicans  had 
carried  the  election.  He  declared,  therefore,  that  every  ap- 
pointment made  between  December  twelfth,  1800,  and  March 
fourth,  1801,  should  be  disregarded,  *  and  forbade  the  com- 
missions to  be  issued.  Madison  obeyed  ;  the  justices  went  to 
law,  and,  at  the  December  term,  1801,  Marbury  moved  the 
Supreme  Court  for  a  rule  commanding  James  Madison  to 
show  cause  why  a  mandamus  should  not  issue.  The  rule  was 
granted,  and  the  fourth  day  of  the  next  term  set  down  for  a 
hearing.  But  before  the  next  term  came  the  Judiciary  Act 
was  amended,  the  August  term  abolished,  and  the  sitting  of 
the  Supreme  Court  thus  suspended  for  fourteen  months. 

Meanwhile  the  President  began  a  third  attack.  On  the 
bench  of  the  New  Hampshire  District  Court  sat  a  judge 
named  John  Pickering,  and  before  him  in  October,  1802, 
came  a  case  which  brought  about  his  judicial  ruin.  A  ship, 
named  the  Eliza,  had  entered  her  cargo  at  the  port  of  Boston, 
and  with  proper  papers  had  gone  to  Portsmouth  to  break 
bulk.  There  the  captain,  for  mere  convenience;  put  ashore 
some  pieces  of  check  linen  and  two  cables  bought  in  foreign 
parts.  For  this  his  ship,  with  her  furniture,  her  tackle,  and 
her  apparel,  was  seized  by  the  surveyor  of  the  district.  The 
case  came  for  trial  before  Judge  Pickering,  who  promptly 
ordered  the  ship  and  goods  restored  to  the  owner  ;  but  they 

*  Jefferson  to  General  Henry  Knox,  March  27,  1801. 


166  THE  SPREAD   OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  xvn. 

were  immediately  libelled  by  order  of  the  Collector  on  the 
ground  that  the  judge  had  been  drunk  and  the  proceedings 
most  irregular.  In  the  November  following,  a  special  session 
of  the  Court  was  held,  and  the  libels  against  the  ship  and  cargo 
brought  to  trial.  But  the  judge  was  so  drunk,  his  language 
so  incoherent  and  profane,  his  behavior  so  wild,  that  a  post- 
ponement to  the  following  day  was  asked.  "  My  dear,"  said 
the  judge  to  the  attorney, "  I  will  give  you  to  all  eternity,"  and 
adjourned  the  Court,  remarking  as  he  did  so  that  to-morrow  he 
would  be  sober.  When,  however,  the  morrow  came,  and  he 
took  his  seat  on  the  bench,  he  was  as  drunk  and  irrational  as 
before.  The  libel  on  the  cables  came  up  first.  But  after  a 
couple  of  witnesses  had  been  heard  for  the  claimant,  Picker- 
ing suddenly  declared  that  both  vessel  and  cargo  should  be 
released,  and  bade  the  clerk  enter  the  decree.  In  vain  the 
District  Attorney  reminded  him  that  but  one  side  had  been 
heard,  and  asked  leave  to  bring  forward  witnesses  for  the 
prosecution.  "  You  may,"  said  Pickering,  "  bring  forty  thou- 
sand, but  they  will  not  alter  the  decree."  The  attorney  then 
demanded  an  appeal  to  the  Circuit  Court,  but  the  counsel  for 
the  defendant  declared  the  value  of  the  cables  was  not  great 
enough  to  allow  an  appeal,  and  the  judge  refused  to  grant  one. 
With  this  and  a  torrent  of  jargon  from  the  bench  the  trial 
ended.  Enraged  at  such  treatment,  the  Collector  drew  up  a 
statement  of  the  behavior  of  Pickering,  gathered  a  bundle  of 
papers  and  affidavits  relating  to  the  scenes  in  Court,  and  sent 
them  to  Jefferson. 

That  Pickering  was  no  longer  fit  to  sit  on  the  bench  was 
clear  to  everybody.  That  he  ought  to  be  relieved  was  unde- 
niable ;  nor  was  it  impossible  to  relieve  him.  The  twenty-fifth 
section  of  the  Judiciary  Act  of  1801  made  provision  for  just 
such  cases.  Whenever  a  district  judge,  the  law  read,  became 
unable  to  attend  to  his  duties,  the  Circuit  Court  should  name 
one  of  its  members  to  fill  his  place  so  long  as  his  disability 
continued.  Indeed,  the  Circuit  Court  for  the  eastern  circuit 
had  done  this  very  thing  for  Pickering  in  1801.  It  might 
have  done  BO  in  1802.  But  a  fine  chance  to  turn  out  a  Feder- 
alist would  thus  be  lost,  and  Jefferson  determined  to  get  rid  of 
Pickering  by  impeachment.  This  decision  reached,  he  sent 


1803.  JUDGE-BREAKING  AT  WASHINGTON.  167 

the  papers  with  a  message  to  the  House  'of  Representatives.* 
Redress,  he  declared,  was  not  within  the  power  of  the  Presi- 
dent. It  was,  however,  within  the  power  of  the  House,  if,  in 
their  opinion,  redress  was  needed.  Taking  the  hint,  the  House 
referred  the  papers  to  a  committee  of  five,  from  whom,  two 
weeks  later,  came  a  report  that  John  Pickering  ought  to  be 
impeached.f 

The  purpose  of  the  impeachment  was  not  misunderstood. 
The  Court  and  the  President  were  at  war.  The  issue  was 
promptly  accepted,  and  the  next  week  Chief  Justice  Marshall 
hurled  back  a  defiance  from  the  Supreme  bench.J  The 
opportunity  for  this  defiance  was  afforded  by  the  famous  case 
of  Marbury  against  Madison.  At  last,  in  February,  1803,  the 
Court,  after  fourteen  months'  suspension,  met,  heard  counsel 
for  Marbury,  and  handed  down  a  decision.  Marshall  delivered 
it.  A  commission,  he  explained,  was  not  necessary  to  the 
appointment  of  an  officer  by  the  President.  The  document 
was  evidence  of  appointment,  but  no  part  of  it.  When  such 
a  commission  for  an  officer  not  removable  at  the  will  of  the 
Executive  had  been  signed  by  the  President  and  sealed  by  the 
Secretary  of  State,  it  was  not  revocable.  The  officer  then  had 
a  vested  legal  right  to  it,  of  which  neither  the  Secretary  nor 
the  President  could  deprive  him.  The  duty  was  not  one  de- 
pending on  the  discretion  of  the  President.  It  was  prescribed 
by  law  and  must  be  performed.  A  mandamus  ought  there- 
fore to  issue,  not  from  the  Supreme  Court,  but  from  the 
District  Court.  Should  the  Supreme  Court  mandamus  the 
Secretary  of  State,  it  would  be  exercising  an  original  jurisdic- 
tion not  granted  by  the  Constitution. 

When  Jefferson  read  the  decision  he  was  more  incensed 
against  the  Court  than  ever.  The  bold  language  in  which  the 
Chief  Justice  had  defined  the  Executive  power,  had  set  forth 
the  Executive  duties,  had  accused  the  President  of  violating 
a  vested  legal  right,  above  all,  the  unusual  way  in  which  the 
decision  had  been  made,  could  mean  nothing  else  than  defiance. 
The  whole  case  turned  on  the  question  of  jurisdiction.  As  the 
Court  had  none,  Marshall,  had  he  followed  the  usual  custom, 

*  February  3,  1803.     f  February  18,  1803.     f  February  24,  1803. 


V 


168  THE  SPREAD  OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  xrn. 

would  have  said  so  in  a  few  words  and  sent  Marbury  to  the 
District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia. But  he  did  not,  and  went  out  of  his  way  to  express  an 
opinion  on  the  conduct  and  the  powers  of  the  President  and 
his  Secretary,  an  opinion  quite  out  of  place  in  a  court  having 
no  jurisdiction  in  the  matter  he  was  discussing. 

Jefferson  justly  felt  that  John  Marshall  had  openly  defied 
him.  His  friends  shared  this  feeling  and  went  forward  more 
eagerly  than  ever  in  their  new  attack  on  the  last  remnant  of 
Federal  power.  The  Executive  branch  of  Government  was 
Republican,  the  Legislative  branch  was  Republican,  and  it 
would  go  hard  with  them  if,  in  turn,  the  Judicial  branch  was 
not  Republican  also.  Nobody  was  surprised,  therefore,  when, 
taking  up  the  report  of  the  committee  on  Judge  Pickering's 
case,  the  House,  by  the  unanimous  vote  of  the  Republicans, 
sent  John  Randolph  and  Joseph  Nicholson  to  the  bar  of  the 
Senate  and,  in  the  name  of  the  House  of  Representatives  and 
all  the  people  of  the  United  States,  impeached  John  Pickering 
of  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors.*  A  few  hours  later  the 
seventh  Congress  expired,  and  the  impeachment  proceedings 
went  over  to  the  next  session  of  the  Senate.  When  that  time 
came  all  was  in  readiness  for  the  impeachment  of  another 
judge,  and  of  that  judge  who,  of  all  men  on  the  Supreme 
bench,  was  the  most  offensive  to  Republicans,  Samuel  Chase, 
of  Maryland. 

Just  after  the  close  of  the  February  term  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  Chase  had  gone  upon  his  circuit,  and  May  second  ad- 
dressed the  Grand  Jury  at  Baltimore.  The  charge  was  much 
in  his  old-time  style.  It  began  with  matters  appertaining  to 
the  jury  and  ended  with  matters  appertaining  to  politics.  He 
could  not,  he  said,  suffer  the  jury  to  go  to  their  chamber  with- 
out a  few  words  on  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  the  country. 
Not  constitutions,  but  well-secured  rights,  made  a  people  free 
and  happy.  All  history  taught  that  a  monarchy  might  be  free, 
that  a  republic  might  be  enslaved.  Where  laws  were  made 
without  respect  to  classes,  where  justice  was  meted  out  alike  to 
rich  and  poor,  where  wealth  gave  no  protection  to  violence, 

*  March  3,  1803. 


1803.  JUDGE-BREAKING  IN  MARYLAND.  169 

and  where  the  property  and  person  of  every  man  were  quite 
secure,  there  the  people  were  indeed  free.  Such  was  the 
present  condition  of  the  United  States.  Where  laws  were 
partial,  arbitrary,  and  uncertain;  where  there  was  one  kind 
of  justice  for  the  rich  man,  and  another  kind  of  justice 
for  the  poor  man,  where  property  was  no  longer  safe,  and 
where  the  person  was  open  to  insult  without  redress  by  law, 
there  the  people  were  not  free,  whatever  form  of  government 
they  possessed.  To  this  situation  he  greatly  feared  the  United 
States  were  going.  The  repeal  of  the  Federal  Judiciary  Act, 
the  sweeping  away  of  sixteen  circuit  judges,  the  changes  in  the 
State  Constitution  of  Maryland,  the  establishment  of  universal 
suffrage,  the  proposal  to  reform  the  State  judiciary,  were  signs 
not  to  be  mistaken.  They  would,  in  his  opinion,  surely  and 
quickly  destroy  all  protection  to  property,  all  security  to  per- 
sonal liberty,  and  sink  the  country  into  a  mobocracy,  the  worst 
kind  of  government  known  to  man. 

So  much  of  the  charge  as  related  to  politics  at  once  found 
its  way  into  the  columns  of  the  American  and  the  Anti-Demo- 
crat, of  Baltimore,  and  the  National  Intelligencer,  of  "Washing- 
ton, and  was  read  by  Jefferson  with  astonishment  and  delight. 
Astonishment  at  the  boldness  of  the  attack.  Delight  that  the 
man  who  had  twice  condemned  Fries  to  the  gallows,  and  had 
sent  Callender  to  the  jail,  was  at  last  within  his  power.  Not  a 
moment  did  he  hesitate  what  to  do.  The  factious  judge  should 
be  impeached,  and  impeached  by  Joseph  Nicholson.  For  two 
reasons  Nicholson  seemed  the  most  fit  man.  Chase  had 
attacked  the  State  of  Maryland.  Nicholson  was  a  representa- 
tive from  Maryland,  and  might  well  become  her  defender.  But, 
more  than  this,  he  was  already  charged  with  the  management 
of  the  impeachment  of  one  judge,  and  might  well  undertake  the 
impeachment  of  another.  To  Nicholson,  therefore,  Jefferson 
wrote  at  once,  and  urged  him  not  to  let  the  "  seditious  and  offi- 
cial attack  "  of  Chase  go  unpunished. 

While  Nicholson  was  trying  to  make  up  his  mind  just 
what  to  do,  some  advice  was  given  him  by  the  Baltimore 
American.  In  the  Court-room,  on  the  day  Judge  Chase 
read  his  charge,  was  John  Montgomery,  a  member  of  the 
Maryland  Legislature,  and  the  framer  and  foremost  defender 


170  THE  SPREAD  OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  XTII. 

of  the  measures  the  judge  declared  were  fast  ruining  the 
country.  Every  eye  in  the  audience  was  therefore  turned  on 
him.  Every  word  uttered,  every  denunciation  made,  seemed 
to  be  levelled  at  him.  He  was  filled  with  rage,  and,  as  he  went 
down  the  Court-house  steps,  was  heard  to  declare  that  for  this 
Judge  Chase  should  be  impeached.  Going  home,  he  sat  down, 
and,  while  in  hot  blood,  wrote  an  article  for  the  American,* 
urging  impeachment.  A  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court,  he 
wrote,  holds  office  during  good  behavior.  Has  Judge  Chase 
behaved  well  ?  He  has  debased  himself  to  the  level  of  a  tur- 
bulent, dissatisfied  demagogue.  He  has  uttered  words  likely 
to  bring  the  Government  and  the  laws  into  contempt  and  dis- 
repute. He  has  laid  aside  his  judicial  duties  to  stir  up  dis- 
content, and  richly  deserves  to  forfeit  his  office.  It  must  rest 
with  Congress  to  wipe  away  this  defilement  of  the  Court  by 
removing  from  the  bench  the  rubbish  which  has  caused  it. 

The  cry  for  impeachment,  thus  begun,  grew  stronger  and 
stronger  as  the  summer  wore  on,  and  greatly  encouraged 
Nicholson.  His  friends,  it  is  likely,  were  freely  consulted. 
One  at  least  is  known  to  have  been,  and  advised  him  to  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  matter.  That  Chase  had  been  guilty 
of  misbehavior  was  far  from  certain.  That  the  language  of 
his  charge  was  such  as  to  call  for  punishment  was  very  doubt- 
ful. Even  if  it  was,  Nicholson  ought  not  to  be  the  prosecutor, 
as  he  would,  in  all  probability,  be  Judge  Chase's  successor. 
This  sound  advice  was  partly  taken,  partly  rejected.  When 
Congress  met,  the  impeachment  was  moved,  but  it  was  moved 
by  John  Randolph. 

He,  too,  thought  the  language  of  the  Baltimore  charge  was 
no  ground  for  impeachment,  and  went  back  to  the  conduct  of 
Chase  in  the  trial  of  John  Fries.  He  reminded  the  House 
that,  at  the  last  session  of  Congress,  a  member  from  Pennsyl- 
vania had,  in  his  place,  stated  facts  regarding  the  official  con- 
duct of  Judge  Chase  which  he  thought  the  House  was  bound 
to  notice.  The  member  referred  to  was  John  Smilie.  The 
statement  of  facts  referred  to  was  made  in  the  course  of  a  de- 

*  "  Upon  the  Liability  to  Impeachment  of  J.  Chase  for  Alleged  Misbehavior 
in  Office,"  American,  June  13,  1803. 


1804.  JUDGE  CHASE  IMPEACHED.  171 

bate  on  the  Judiciary  Bill.  Observing  that  Judge  Chase  had 
been  assigned  to  the  circuit  in  which  Pennsylvania  lay,  he 
protested  and  begged  to  have  the  judge  put  on  some  other  cir- 
cuit, alleging  that  Chase  was  obnoxious  to  the  people  of  that 
commonwealth.  He  was  asked  why  Chase  was  obnoxious  to 
the  people  of  Pennsylvania,  and  told  the  story  of  the  trial  of 
Fries ;  how  the  counsel  for  the  defendant  were  insulted,  and 
browbeaten,  and  driven  from  the  Court;  how  the  prisoner 
was  tried  without  counsel,  convicted,  and  sentenced  to  be  hung ; 
and  how,  when  Adams  heard  of  the  conduct  of  the  judge,  he 
pardoned  Fries.  When  this  statement  was  made  the  session, 
Randolph  said,  was  too  far  gone  to  take  up  the  charges.  But 
he  had  since  looked  into  them ;  he  believed  them  to  be  true, 
and,  so  believing,  moved  for  a  committee  of  investigation. 
The  Republicans  were  delighted ;  those  who  came  from 
Pennsylvania  were  particularly  so,  and  the  next  day  secured 
an  amendment  coupling  Judge  Peters  with  Chase,  for  Richard 
Peters  was  the  district  judge  who  sat  with  Chase  at  the  trials. 
As  thus  amended,  the  motion  was  stoutly  opposed  by  the  Fed- 
eralists, and  by  some  who  were  not  Federalists,  as  wholly 
irregular.  Not  a  charge,  they  said,  has  been  made.  Not  a 
complaint  has  been  heard.  Yet  we  are  called  on  to  order  a 
committee  to  investigate  the  conduct  of  innocent  men,  with  a 
view  to  impeachment.  This  is  most  unparliamentary.  Spe- 
cific charges  must  go  before  investigation.  Such  has  always 
been  the  custom,  both  in  England  and  the  United  States. 
Before  Blount  was  impeached  the  President  sent  documents 
to  the  House.  When  Pickering  was  to  be  impeached  the 
same  course  was  taken. 

The  Republicans  asserted  that  the  method  of  procedure 
proposed  by  Randolph  was  parliamentary.  Precedents  being 
demanded,  they  cited  the  case  of  Strafford,  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  I ;  of  Bolingbroke,  of  Oxford,  of  Ormond,  in  the 
reign  of  George  I ;  of  Sir  Robert  Eyres,  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Court  of  Common  Pleas,  in  1730;  of  Warren  Hastings,  in 
1786 ;  of  St.  Clair,  in  1792 ;  and  asserted  that,  as  the  House 
of  Representatives  was  the  Grand  Inquest  of  the  nation,  it 
had  power  to  act  after  the  manner  of  a  Grand  Jury  or  the 
Legislature  of  a  State. 


1Y2  THE  SPREAD  OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  xvn. 

It  mattered  little,  however,  what  they  said.  Neither  side 
convinced  the  other.  The  resolution  passed ;  a  committee 
reported  in  favor  of  impeaching  Chase,  but  not  Peters ;  and 
two  members  of  the  House  were  despatched  to  the  bar  of  the 
Senate,  where,  in  the  name  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and 
of  all  the  people  of  the  United  States,  they  impeached  Samuel 
Chase  of  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors.  A  better  time  could 
not  have  been  chosen,  for  on  the  preceding  day  the  Senate, 
sitting  as  a  High  Court  of  Impeachment,  had  pronounced  sen- 
tence on  John  Pickering. 

That  shameful  piece  of  business  which  passes  by  the  name 
of  Pickering's  trial  began  early  in  January,  1804,  by  the 
House  exhibiting  four  articles  against  him.  The  first  and 
second  charged  him  with  having  on  two  separate  occasions, 
and  in  open  violation  of  law,  delivered  the  ship  Eliza  to  her 
owners  after  she  had  been  seized  for  smuggling.  The  third 
accused  him  with  refusing  to  allow  an  appeal  to  the  Circuit 
Court,  thereby  wickedly  meaning  and  intending  to  injure  the 
revenue  of  the  United  States.  The  fourth  declared  that  he 
was  on  both  these  occasions  drunk,  blasphemous,  and  in  his 
behavior  a  disgrace  to  the  bench.  Some  weeks  were  now 
consumed  by  the  Senate  in  examining  precedents,  preparing 
oaths  for  officers  and  witnesses,  drawing  up  forms  of  subpoenas, 
and  arranging  the  chamber  for  the  use  of  the  Court.  By 
March  second  all  was  ready,  and  on  that  day  the  Court  was 
opened  and  the  name  of  John  Pickering  three  times  called  ; 
but  there  was  no  answer.  The  judge  did  not  appear  either  in 
person  or  by  counsel.  In  his  place  came  a  petition  from  his  son, 
and  a  letter  from  Robert  Goodloe  Harper.  The  petitioner 
alleged  that  when  the  crimes  charged  were  done,  Judge  Pick- 
ering was  insane,  and  had  been  insane  for  two  years ;  that  he 
was  physically  unable  to  attend  the  Court,  and  asked  that  the 
trial  be  put  off,  and  an  order  issued  to  take  depositions  to  be 
received  in  evidence  of  insanity.  The  letter  stated  that  the 
petitioner  was  too  poor  to  come  to  Washington,  and  requested 
that  Harper  be  allowed  to  appear  and  support  the  petition. 
Mr.  Harper  was  then  invited  within  the  bar,  and  addressed 
the  Court.  He  assured  it  that  he  acted  in  no  sense  as  the 
attorney  of  Judge  Pickering,  who  was  too  insane  to  select  an 


1804.  JUDGE  PICKERING  REMOVED.  173 

attorney.  He  came,  as  the  friend  of  the  son,  to  ask  for  a 
postponement  of  the  trial.  The  question  now  before  the 
Court  was,  Will  the  Court  hear  evidence  and  counsel  respect- 
ing the  insanity  of  John  Pickering  ?  The  day  being  Saturday, 
and  the  question  of  much  importance,  the  Court  adjourned 
till  Monday.  On  Monday,  late  in  the  afternoon,  the  decis- 
ion was  reached  to  grant  the  prayer  and  hear  the  evidence. 
But  on  Tuesday  the  managers  for  the  House  announced  that 
they  would  go  on  with  the  trial,  but  would  not  listen  to  the 
evidence.  They  would  support  the  articles  of  impeachment, 
but  they  would  not  discuss  a  question  raised  by  a  third  party 
unauthorized  by  the  accused.  Thereupon  the  whole  body  of 
managers,  with  attorneys  and  witnesses,  marched  out  of  the 
chamber  and  left  the  Court  to  itself.  Having  listened  to  the 
evidence  in  support  of  insanity,  the  Court  rose,  sent  word  the 
next  day  to  the  House  that  it  was  ready  to  go  on  with  the 
articles  of  impeachment,  and  spent  the  day  following  in  listen- 
ing to  the  testimony  of  the  prosecution.  The  testimony  all  in, 
the  managers  rested  their  case  and  withdrew.  After  a  delay 
of  another  twenty-four  hours  John  Pickering  was  declared 
guilty,  as  charged,  and  removed  from  office. 

No  act  so  arbitrary,  so  illegal,  so  infamous  had  yet  been 
done  by  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  Without  a  hear- 
ing, without  counsel,  an  insane  man  had  been  tried  and,  on 
ex  parte  evidence,  had  been  found  guilty  and  punished.  It 
was  on  the  twelfth  of  March  that  this  verdict  was  rendered ; 
and  that  same  afternoon  the  House  voted  to  impeach  Samuel 
Chase.  John  Randolph  and  Peter  Early  were  then  sent  to 
inform  the  Senate,  and  the  Senate  took  order  accordingly. 
But,  the  close  of  the  session  being  near  at  hand,  the  exhibition 
of  articles  of  impeachment  went  over  to  the  next  winter.  At 
last,  on  December  sixth,  all  was  ready.  The  articles  were  then 
approved,  the  managers  were  then  chosen,  the  clerk  was 
then  sent  to  tell  the  Senate  that  the  House  was  ready  to 
exhibit  the  articles,  and  the  House  was  then  informed  by  the 
Senate  that  the  next  day  at  one  o'clock  would  be  the  time. 
The  ceremony  gone  through  with  on  that  day  was  thought 
most  imposing.  Precisely  at  one  the  managers  presented 
themselves  at  the  door  of  the  Senate  chamber,  were  admitted, 


174  THE  SPREAD  OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  xvii. 

and  sat  down  within  the  bar.  The  sergeant  at  arms  then  pro- 
claimed silence.  John  Randolph  then  rose  and  read  the 
articles  through.  Burr,  in  behalf  of  the  Senate,  declared  that 
due  order  would  be  taken,  and  the  managers,  having  delivered 
the  paper  at  the  table,  withdrew. 

A  month  now  passed  before  the  trial  began,  for  notice  had 
to  be  served  on  the  judge,  rules  drawn  up  for  the  guidance 
of  the  Court,  and,  what  greatly  pleased  the  Federal  news- 
mongers, the  Senate  chamber  had  to  be  draped  in  feeble 
imitation  of  that  splendid  hall  in  which  Warren  Hastings  had 
been  tried  and  acquitted  Can  these  Democrats  who  are  fit- 
ting up  the  court  of  impeachment  with  red  hangings  and 
green  hangings,  with  crimson  boxes  for  the  triers,  and  with 
blue  boxes  for  the  managers,  all  in  the  latest  English  style, 
can  these,  it  was  asked,  be  the  men  who,  a  few  years  since, 
found  fault  with  our  judges  for  wearing  gowns,  with  our 
President  for  his  receptions,  his  levees,  his  speeches  to  Con- 
gress from  the  throne,  nay,  with  Congress  for  marching  through 
the  street  with  an  answer  to  the  speech,  and  for  sitting  on 
chairs  made  of  mahogany  from  the  British  colonies  ?  Nor 
were  such  scoffs  undeserved.  In  a  city  in  a  desert ;  in  a  city 
without  houses,  without  people;  in  a  building  not  yet  half 
erected  men,  avowedly  the  simplest  of  republicans,  were  imi- 
tating the  finest  piece  of  ceremonial  witnessed  in  England  in 
the  course  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

On  the  right  and  on  the  left  of  the  chair  of  the  Vice-Presi- 
dent  were  two  rows  of  benches  covered  with  crimson  cloth . 
On  these  the  senators  were  to  sit  in  judgment.  Before  them 
was  a  temporary  simicircular  gallery,  raised  on  pillars  and 
covered,  front  and  seats,  with  green  cloth.  To  this  the  women 
came  in  crowds.  Under  the  gallery  were  three  rows  of 
benches  rising  one  above  the  other,  likewise  covered  with 
green  cloth,  and  set  apart  for  the  heads  of  departments,  foreign 
ministers,  and  the  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 
In  front  of  this  amphitheatre,  and  facing  the  right  and  left  of 
the  Vice-President,  were  two  boxes  covered  with  blue  cloth. 
One  was  occupied  by  the  managers,  the  other  by  the  accused 
and  his  counsel. 

Neither  of  these  boxes  was  occupied  on  the  opening  day. 


1805.  TRIAL  OF  CHASE.  175 

The  proceedings  were  merely  formal.  The  Senate  attended. 
The  Secretary  read  the  return  of  the  summons.  The  name  of 
Samuel  Chase  was  called.  So  closely  had  English  precedent 
been  followed  that  no  seat  had  been  provided  for  the  culprit, 
but  notice  had  been  given  that,  if  he  requested  it,  a  chair 
would  be  brought  to  him.  The  judge  was  told  the  Senate 
was  ready  to  hear  his  answer.  His  answer  was  short  and 
temperate.  He  denied  that  he  had  committed  any  crime  or 
misdemeanor  whatever ;  denied,  with  a  few  exceptions,  every 
act  with  which  he  was  charged ;  spoke  of  the  importance  of 
the  impeachment  not  only  to  himself,  but  to  the  cause  of  free 
government,  and  asked  till  the  next  session  of  Congress  to  put 
in  his  answer  and  secure  counsel  for  trial.  He  was  given  till 
the  fourth  of  February. 

The  time  was  not  given  grudgingly.  The  prosecutors 
were  quite  as  eager  for  delay  as  the  accused,  for  the  prospect 
of  success  was  poor  indeed.  Thirty-four  men  had  seats  in  the 
Senate.  Of  the  thirty-four,  nine  were  Federalists,  twenty- 
five  were  Republicans,  and  the  votes  of  twenty-three  were 
needed  to  convict.  But  the  votes  of  no  more  than  twenty 
could  be  counted  as  sure.  Over  the  Court  presided  Aaron 
Burr,  the  implacable  hater  of  Jefferson  and  all  his  ways. 
Below,  on  the  crimson  benches,  sat  Stephen  Bradley,  of  Ver- 
mont, who  in  private  had  denounced  the  impeachment  of 
Pickering,  and  had  never  been  heard  to  approve  of  that  of 
Chase ;  and  Israel  Smith,  who  followed  where  Bradley  led. 
There,  too,  sat  Samuel  Mitchell  and  John  Smith,  of  New 
York,  who,  as  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  had 
voted  against  the  motion  for  a  committee  to  inquire  into  the 
conduct  of  Justice  Chase.  It  was  feared  that  the  blandish- 
ments of  Burr  would  draw  away  the  vote  of  John  Smith,  of 
Ohio.  To  win  over  these  malcontents  was  most  important, 
and  in  the  attempt  to  do  this  the  month  of  January  was 
spent. 

To  Jefferson  fell  the  task  of  mollifying  Burr,  and  the  task 
was  well  performed.  In  a  few  weeks  the  treatment  of  the 
man  so  lately  denounced  as  a  trickster  and  a  renegade  under- 
went a  marked  change.  The  National  Intelligencer  ceased 
to  abuse  him.  Madison  became  gracious,  Gallatin  grew 


176  THE  SPREAD  OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  xvn. 

friendly,  Jefferson  overwhelmed  him  with  invitations  to 
dine.  Giles  framed  a  petition  to  the  Governor  of  New  Jer- 
sey, begging  him  to  quash  the  indictment  found  against  Burr 
by  the  Grand  Jury  of  Bergen  County,  and  passed  it  about 
the  Senate  for  signature.  Nay,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that 
he  was  even  promised  that  share  of  patronage  so  long  with- 
held. Two  bills  were  then  before  Congress.  One  reorganized 
the  government  of  Orleans ;  the  other  turned  the  district  of 
Louisiana  into  the  Territory  of  Louisiana,  and  gave  it  a  gov- 
ernment of  its  own.  Neither  bill  was  signed  by  Jefferson  till 
the  impeachment  trial  ended  in  failure,  and  Burr  had  but  two 
days  to  serve.  Yet,  even  then,  when  he  had  ceased  to  be 
Yice-President,  when  his  career  was  run,  well-paid  places 
were  found  in  the  new  government  for  his  connections  and 
his  friends.  His  step-son  was  made  Secretary  of  Louisiana. 
The  brother-in-law  of  his  wife  was  made  a  judge  of  the  Su- 
perior Court  of  Orleans.  His  old  friend  Wilkinson  was  made 
Governor  of  Louisiana,  for  the  hope  of  rending  that  Territory 
from  the  Union  was  never  for  a  moment  absent  from  his 
mind.  That  such  places  were  put  at  the  disposal  of  Aaron 
Burr  without  a  mete  return  from  him  is  not  for  a  moment  to 
be  supposed. 

To  Giles,  of  Virginia,  meanwhile  had  been  given  the  task 
of  securing  the  doubtful  and  discontented  senators.  All  that 
could  be  done  he  did.  He  argued  with  the  doubters.  He 
strove  to  appease  the  rebellious.  He  toiled  earnestly  to  do 
away  with  the  terrors  and  gravity  of  impeachment.  It  was 
not,  he  maintained,  such  a  dreadful  thing  as  it  seemed.  Men 
could  be  impeached  for  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors ;  but 
they  could  also  be  impeached  and  removed  for  offences  that 
were  neither  high  crimes  nor  misdemeanors.  Such  was  the  case 
of  John  Pickering.  He  was  insane.  He  was  not  responsible, 
and  could  not,  therefore,  be  guilty  of  a  crime.  Yet  he  had  been 
removed.  And  why  ?  Because  he  could  not  with  safety  be 
intrusted  with  the  duties  of  a  judge.  Such  was  the  case  of 
Justice  Chase.  His  impeachment  did  not  imply  crime  or 
corruption.  It  was  a  notice  that  he  held  opinions  hurtful  to 
the  welfare  of  the  country,  and  could  no  longer  keep  his 
place.  Thus  was  it  that  impeachment  might  become  an  in- 


1805.  TRIAL  OF  CHASE.  177 

quest  into  the  behavior  of  an  officer,  a  civil  investigation,  not 
a  prosecution  of  crime.  This  being  the  case,  Giles  declared 
that  the  Senate  ought  not  to  take  on  the  form  of  a  court ; 
ought  not  to  use  the  word  in  its  rules ;  ought  not  to  swear  the 
members  as  judges ;  ought  not  to  have  the  Secretary  swear  the 
witnesses ;  nor  open  the  proceedings  with  the  ancient  cry  of 
Oyez !  Oyez !  Oyez  !  But  the  labor  and  the  arguments  of 
Giles  were  in  vain,  and  the  fourth  of  February  came  with  the 
five  senators  as  ill-disposed  as  ever  toward  conviction. 

On  that  day,  for  the  first  time,  the  managers  and  the  coun- 
sel for  the  accused  appeared  in  their  boxes.  The  month  al- 
lotted the  defendant  to  secure  counsel  and  make  ready  for  trial 
had  been  well  spent,  and  he  now  confronted  his  accusers  with 
an  array  of  legal  talent  such  as  had  never  yet  assembled  in 
the  city  of  Washington.  Beside  him  stood  Luther  Martin,  a 
man  without  an  equal  at  the  Maryland  bar ;  Robert  Goodloe 
Harper,  Charles  Lee,  Philip  Barton  Key,  and  Joseph  Hop- 
kinson,  a  young  man  just  turned  thirty-five,  who,  having  de- 
fended Fries  before  Judge  Chase,  was  now  to  defend  Judge 
Chase  against  the  charge  of  oppressing  and  unjustly  treating 
Fries.  As  counsel  for  the  House  were  the  managers,  John 
Randolph,  George  Washington  Campbell,  Joseph  Nicholson, 
Caesar  Augustus  Rodney,  John  Boyle,  Peter  Early,  and  Chris- 
topher Clark.  The  first  day  was  taken  up  with  reading  the 
plea  of  Judge  Chase  and  calling  the  roll  of  the  witnesses. 
An  adjournment,  the  opening  speech  of  John  Randolph  for 
the  managers,  and  the  examination  of  witnesses  consumed 
two  weeks  more,  so  that  the  middle  of  February  came  before 
the  arguments  began  in  good  earnest.  Eight  articles  had 
been  exhibited.  Two  set  forth  his  arbitrary,  oppressive,  and 
unjust  treatment  of  Fries.  Two  more  charged  him  with  hav- 
ing oppressed  James  Thompson  Callender  by  forcing  a  preju- 
diced juror  to  serve,  by  ruling  out  evidence,  by  acting  so 
partially,  so  intemperately,  so  cruelly,  that  the  counsel  for 
Callender  had  been  compelled  to  abandon  their  client  and 
their  case.  Two  others  accused  him  of  violating  the  laws  of 
Virginia  by  issuing  a  capias  against  the  body  of  Callender 
instead  of  a  summons,  and  by  trying  the  prisoner  at  the  same 
term  at  which  he  was  indicted,  though  the  law  declared  that 

VOL.  III. — 13 


178  THE  SPREAD  OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  xvn. 

he  should  not  be  tried  till  the  term  next  following.  The 
seventh  alleged  that  he  had  refused  to  dismiss  a  Grand  Jury 
at  New  Castle,  Delaware,  till  it  convicted  a  printer  on  trial 
for  sedition.  The  eighth  was  concerned  with  his  conduct  at 
Baltimore  in  May,  1803 ;  charged  him  with  seeking  to  stir 
up  the  anger  of  the  jury  against  the  government  of  Mary- 
land and  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  and  with 
"  prostituting  the  high  judicial  character  with  which  he  was 
invested  to  the  low  purposes  of  an  electioneering  partisan." 

Grave  as  the  offences  charged  might  seem  in  the  eyes  of 
good  men  zealous  for  what  they  called  the  dignity  of  the  bench 
and  the  purity  of  the  ermine,  they  were  no  offences  at  all  in 
the  eye  of  the  law.  Not  a  principle  of  common  law,  not  an 
act  on  any  Statute  Book,  could  reach  them.  How,  then,  it  was 
asked,  can  Justice  Chase  be  impeached  ?  His  acts  were  indeed 
unwise,  in  bad  taste,  greatly  to  be  regretted.  But  he  had 
committed  no  high  crime.  He  had  been  guilty  of  no  misde- 
meanor. The  answer  was  the  argument  of  the  managers. 

The  difference,  said  one  of  them  in  substance,  between 
the  terms  crimes  and  misdemeanors  as  used  in  the  laws,  and 
the  terms  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors  as  used  in  the  Con- 
stitution, is  precisely  the  difference  between  indictment  and 
impeachment.  The  murderer,  the  forger,  the  common  thief 
must  be  arrested,  then  indicted  and  tried.  The  criminal,  in 
the  meaning  of  the  Constitution,  is  never  arrested.  No 
process  issues  against  his  body.  No  indictment  ever  sends  him 
to  jail.  He  is  merely  summoned  to  appear  at  the  bar  and 
answer  the  charges  against  him.  The  indicted  criminal,  again, 
may  be  deprived  of  his  life,  of  his  liberty,  nay,  even  of  his 
property  by  heavy  costs  and  fines.  The  impeached  criminal 
can  be  deprived  of  nothing  but  office  and  the  right  to 
hold  office.  Does  not  this  difference  in  the  way  of  trying 
and  in  the  kind  of  punishment  inflicted  mean  a  difference  in 
the  nature  of  the  crimes  ?  Does  it  not  mean  that  where  an 
indictment  lies,  an  impeachment  will  not  ?  A  judge  may  un- 
doubtedly be  indicted  for  murder  ?  Will  any  one  contend 
that  he  may  be  impeached  for  murder  ?  Assuredly  not,  for 
no  man  can  be  tried  twice  for  the  same  offence.  Impeach- 
ment, then,  lies  for  abuse  of  power  done  by  an  officer  in  his 


1805.  TRIAL  OF  CHASE.  179 

official  capacity,  by  a  judge  on  the  bench,  by  the  Vice-Presi- 
dent in  his  seat ;  indictment  lies  for  acts  done  by  men  acting 
as  men  and  not  as  officers. 

Joseph  Hopkinson,  who  opened  for  the  culprit,  answered 
this.  The  difference,  said  he,  between  acts  impeachable  and 
acts  indictable  is  simply  this  :  Every  act  impeachable  is  also 
an  act  indictable  ;  but  every  indictable  act  is  not  an  impeach- 
able act.  If  this  be  true,  it  follows  that  a  man  may  be  both 
indicted  and  impeached  for  the  same  offence  ;  that  he  may, 
in  the  language  of  the  managers,  be  tried  twice  for  the  same 
act.  And  so  he  may.  For  what  other  meaning  can  be  given 
to  those  words  of  the  Constitution,  so  strangely  overlooked 
by  the  managers,  those  words  which  follow  close  on  the  pro- 
vision for  impeachment,  the  words, "  the  party  convicted  shall 
nevertheless  be  liable  and  subject  to  indictment,  trial,  judg- 
ment, and  punishment  according  to  law  "  ?  Impeachment,  then, 
is  no  bar  to  indictment.  Indictment  is  no  bar  to  impeach- 
ment. The  same  man  may  suffer  both  for  the  same  crime. 
But  the  House  cannot  impeach  him  for  an  act  for  which  a 
Grand  Jury  could  not  indict  him.  To  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, it  is  true,  is  given  sole  power  to  impeach.  So  also 
to  grand  juries  is  given  sole  power  to  indict.  But,  as  grand 
juries  cannot  indict  for  what  is  not  indictable,  so  the  House  of 
Representatives  cannot  impeach  save  for  what  is  impeachable. 
And  what  is  impeachable  ?  Treason,  bribery,  and  "  other  high 
crimes  and  misdemeanors."  The  meaning  of  this  is  clearly 
high,  not  petty  misdemeanors. 

Were  I  to  say  there  are  attending  this  tribunal  many  ladies 
and  gentlemen,  would  I  not  be  understood  to  mean  many  ladies 
and  many  gentlemen  ?  The  Constitution  says  that  "  a  regular 
statement  and  account  of  the  receipts  and  expenditures  of  all 
public  money  shall  be  published  from  time  to  time."  Does 
not  this  mean  that  the  account  must  be  regular  as  well  as  the 
statement  ?  Consider  again  with  what  "  misdemeanors  "  are 
associated.  They  are  associated  with  treason,  with  bribery, 
with  high  crimes ;  they  are  tried  in  precisely  the  same  manner ; 
they  are  punished  with  precisely  the  same  penalties.  Consider 
who  are  the  judges.  Not  magistrates,  not  justices  of  the 
peace,  but  the  highest  branch  of  the  highest  legislative  body  in 


180  THE  SPREAD   OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  XVH. 

our  land.  Are  we  to  suppose  that  the  Constitution  means 
that  public  business  shall  be  delayed  while  the  Senate  sits  day 
after  day  to  scan  and  punish  errors  and  indiscretions  too  petty 
to  be  named  in  the  penal  code,  too  insignificant  to  be  noticed 
by  a  Court  of  Quarter  Sessions  ?  Far  from  it.  The  Senate  was 
never  formed  to  fix  the  standard  of  politeness  for  a  judge,  to 
mark  out  the  limits  of  judicial  decorum. 

Luther  Martin  took  the  same  position  as  Hopkinson,  but 
added  nothing  to  the  argument.  Harper  went  further ;  nar- 
rowed the  position  taken  by  his  colleagues ;  maintained  that 
impeachment  was  a  criminal  prosecution;  that  it  must  be 
founded  on  an  open  violation  of  law ;  and  cited  the  Constitu- 
tions of  Pennsylvania,  of  Delaware,  of  Maryland,  of  Virginia, 
of  North  Carolina,  and  of  Georgia  to  prove  that  such  was  the 
meaning  attached  to  it.  After  explaining  his  doctrine  of  im- 
peachment Hopkinson  took  up  the  first  article.  To  Philip 
Barton  Key  were  given  articles  two,  three,  and  four.  Charles 
Lee  then  took  up  the  fifth  and  sixth.  Luther  Martin  followed. 
To  refresh  the  memories  of  the  senators,  he  restated  the  con- 
stitutional arguments  of  Hopkinson,  discussed  articles  two  to 
six  in  order,  tore  them  to  pieces,  and,  with  a  glee  but  half 
concealed,  expounded  the  law  of  Maryland  and  Virginia  to 
Nicholson  and  Randolph.  Harper  then  dealt  with  the  seventh 
and  eighth  articles  and  closed  the  case  for  the  defendant. 

On  the  part  of  the  managers  all  was  perplexity,  doubt,  and 
confusion.  One  declared  that  impeachment  was  a  mere  in- 
quest of  office.  Another  denied  this  and  maintained  that  it 
was  a  criminal  prosecution,  and  limited  to  "  treason,  bribery, 
and  other  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors."  A  third  in  turn 
denied  this,  and  asserted  that  the  Constitution  put  no  limit  on 
impeachment.  Nor  was  the  plan  of  discussing  the  articles  a 
happy  one.  Campbell  and  Early  and  Rodney  each  in  turn 
went  over  every  article  save  the  fifth  and  sixth.  Nicholson 
spoke  briefly  and  feebly  on  the  first,  second,  and  third.  Clark 
alone  touched  on  the  fifth  and  sixth,  and  his  speech  did  not 
take  up  ten  minutes  of  time.  Randolph  closed  for  the  mana- 
gers. Of  law  he  was  totally  ignorant.  "What  logic  was  he  did 
not  know.  With  his  shrill  voice  raised  to  the  highest  pitch, 
with  his  face  distorted,  with  his  body  twisted  into  horrid 


1805.  CHASE  ACQUITTED.  181 

1 

shapes,  weeping,  groaning,  bursting  into  sobs,  he  rambled  on, 
misstating  facts,  misquoting  laws,  heaping  abuse  on  all  his 
enemies,  till  he  broke  down  from  sheer  exhaustion. 

To  such  a  trial  there  could  be  but  one  ending,  and  that 
ending  was  defeat.  But  the  accused  and  his  counsel  were  not 
prepared  for  a  defeat  so  crushing  as  now  fell  on  the  mana- 
gers. When  Randolph  had  finished,  the  Court  fixed  Friday, 
the  first  of  March,  at  noon,  as  the  day  and  hour  for  pro- 
nouncing judgment.  At  that  time  the  Senate  chamber  was 
crowded  to  its  utmost.  The  crimson  benches  of  the  sena- 
tors ;  the  green  benches  of  the  representatives ;  the  women's 
gallery;  the  public  gallery;  the  boxes  where  the  wives  of 
the  Secretaries  sat,  could  not  have  held  one  person  more. 
Not  a  senator  was  absent.  Even  Tracy,  still  sick,  was  brought 
to  the  Capitol  in  a  coach  and  carried  to  his  seat,  that  he  might 
vote. 

Shortly  after  noon  Aaron  Burr  took  the  chair,  bade  the 
Secretary  read  the  first  article  of  impeachment,  announced 
that  the  question  would  be  put  to  each  member  on  each  article 
separately,  and  that  the  form  of  the  question  would  be :  "  Is 
Samuel  Chase  guilty  or  not  guilty  of  a  high  crime  or  misde- 
meanor as  charged  in  the  article  just  read  ? "  The  Secretary 
then  proceeded  to  call  the  roll  and  record  the  vote  on  Article 
one.  As  this  was  first  in  order,  so  was  it  first  in  importance. 
On  the  charges  it  contained,  Randolph  had  moved  for  the  com- 
mittee to  look  into  the  behavior  of  Judge  Chase ;  on  these 
charges  the  impeachment  had  been  based ;  on  these  the  man- 
agers had  spent  the  most  care  and  argument ;  and  if  on  these 
Chase  could  not  be  convicted,  there  was  no  hope  of  convict- 
ing him  at  all.  Yet,  when  the  last  name  was  called,  but  six- 
teen senators  had  answered  "Guilty."  On  the  fifth  he  was 
unanimously  acquitted.  On  the  eighth,  the  substance  of 
which  was  that  charge  to  the  Baltimore  jury  which  roused 
Jefferson  to  suggest  his  impeachment  to  Nicholson  and 
stirred  up  Montgomery  to  demand  it  in  the  American,  nine- 
teen pronounced  him  guilty.  This  was  the  greatest  vote  the 
managers  obtained.  As  soon  as  it  was  recorded,  Burr  rose, 
looked  toward  the  box  in  which  the  accused  sat,  pronounced 
him  acquitted,  and  bowed.  The  judge  bowed  in  return. 


182  THE  SPREAD   OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  xvn. 

The  Court  adjourned  not  to  meet  again,  and  the  great  trial 
was  ended.* 

As  the  friends  of  Chase  gathered  round  to  congratulate 
him,  the  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives  hurried 
back  to  their  chamber.  When  a  few  minutes  had  been  spent 
in  the  transaction  of  business,  the  shrill  voice  of  John  Ran- 
dolph was  heard  calling  to  the  Speaker.  lie  was  beside  him- 
self with  rage  and  disappointment.  Wherever  he  went,  in 
public,  in  private,  nay,  in  the  Court  of  Impeachment  itself,  he 
had  loudly  boasted  that  the  glory  of  the  work  was  his.  Was 
he  not  the  first  man  to  ask  for  impeachment  ?  Was  it  not  his 
hand  that  framed  each  article  ?  Was  it  not  his  skill  that 
directed  the  managers  ?  To  find  on  a  sudden  that  there  was  no 
glory ;  not  only  to  fail,  but  to  fail  most  miserably,  was  indeed 
hard  to  bear.  Worn  out  with  his  toil,  half  sick,  irritated  be- 
yond endurance,  his  pride  cast  down,  his  leadership  gone,  his 
one  longing  was  for  vengeance,  and  he  sought  it  where  it  was 
least  likely  to  be  found.  Rising  in  his  place,  he  moved  an 
amendment  to  the  Constitution.  The  attempt  to  get  rid  of 
judges  by  impeachment  had  failed.  He  would  therefore 
have  the  Constitution  so  changed  that  in  future  they  should  be 
removed  by  the  President  on  joint  address  of  both  Houses  of 
Congress.  This  slur  on  the  judicial  fairness  of  the  Senate  was 
followed  by  one  worse  yet  from  Nicholson.  Republican  senators 
had  presumed  to  vote  for  the  acquittal  of  a  judge  impeached 
by  Republican  representatives.  That  they  should  do  such  an 
act  and  keep  their  seats  was  intolerable.  He,  too,  would  have 
the  Constitution  amended  and  an  article  added  giving  the 
States  power  to  recall  their  senators  at  any  time  they  might 
think  proper.  By  a  party  vote  the  two  resolutions  were  re- 
ferred to  the  next  Congress. 

A  quarrel  now  arose  over  the  payment  of  \vitnesses.  The 
House  would  pass  no  bill  which  provided  for  the  payment  of 
those  summoned  by  Chase.  The  Senate  would  pass  no  bill 
which  did  not.  A  conference  followed.  Each  refused  to  yield, 
and  the  bill  was  lost.  Randolph,  more  angry  than  ever,  then 

*  Report  of  the  Trial  of  the  Hon.  Samuel  Chase,  one  of  the  Associate  Jus- 
tices of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  before  the  High  Court  of  Im- 
peachment, &c.  Taken  in  short-hand  by  Charles  Evans.  Baltimore,  1805. 


1803.  THE  TWELFTH  AMENDMENT.  183 

attempted,  in  the  closing  hours  of  the  session,  to  have  the 
witnesses  for  the  managers  paid  out  of  the  contingent  fund  of 
the  House.  But  the  Federalists  were  ready,  hurried  from  the 
room,  and,  when  the  vote  was  taken,  the  Speaker  announced 
no  quorum.  Members  were  thereupon  summoned  from  the 
lobby  and  committee  rooms.  Hardly  were  they  in  their  seats 
when  a  message  from  the  President  was  announced.  While  the 
clerk  was  reading  it  the  Federalists  again  left  the  room,  so 
that,  when  the  resolution  was  a  second  time  called  up,  there 
was  a  second  time  no  quorom.  Once  more  the  sergeant  at 
arms  went  into  the  lobby.  Once  more  the  members  came  in. 
But  an  enrolled  bill  was  now  reported,  and  while  the  Speaker 
signed  it,  the  Federalists  a  third  time  slipped  out.  The  an- 
nouncement of  no  quorum  which  followed  was  greeted  with 
shouts  of  laughter.  Randolph,  in  a  great  passion,  desisted,  and, 
late  on  the  evening  of  Sunday,  the  third  of  March,  1805,  the 
eighth  Congress  ended.  On  the  following  day  at  noon  Jef- 
ferson was  a  second  time  inaugurated  President  of  the  United 
States. 

The  campaign  may  be  said  to  have  begun  with  the  passage 
by  Congress  of  what  is  now  the  twelfth  article  of  the  amend- 
ments to  the  Constitution.  As  the  Constitution  then  stood, 
each  elector  voted  for  two  men  without  designating  in  any  way 
which  he  wished  to  be  President  and  which  Vice-President  of 
the  United  States.  The  election  of  1800  having  shown  to 
what  evils  this  plan  could  give  rise,  it  was  now  proposed  to 
prevent  the  recurrence  of  a  contest  in  ISOi  by  amending  the 
Constitution.  Accordingly,  on  October  seventeenth,  the  very 
day  the  session  began,  a  twelfth  amendment,  providing  that  in 
future  elections  of  President  and  Vice-President  the  persons 
voted  for  should  be  particularly  designated,  was  introduced. 
When  the  House  sent  the  resolution  to  a  committee  of  seven- 
teen it  was  short  and  general ;  but,  when  the  committee  re- 
ported to  the  House,  the  resolution  was  long  and  specific. 
There  was  still  to  be  a  separate  ballot  for  each  officer.  But, 
if  no  man  received  a  majority  of  the  electoral  votes  for  Presi- 
dent, the  names  of  the  five  highest  on  the  list  of  candidates 
were  to  go  before  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  the  House 
was  to  elect  one  of  them  President.  For  the  election  of  a 


184:  THE  SPREAD  OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  xm. 

Vice-President  the  committee  did  not  think  a  majority  neces- 
sary. Whoever  had  the  greatest  number,  whether  a  majority 
or  not,  was  to  be  considered  elected.  It  might  happen  that 
two  or  more  names  should  receive  the  same  vote,  and  that 
vote  be  the  highest.  In  such  cases  the  Senate  was  to  decide 
who  should  be  Vice-President. 

The  debate  which  now  took  place  was  interesting  and  in- 
structive. Little  was  said  on  the  need  of  amendment,  or  on 
the  merits  of  the  proposed  amendment.  Much  was  said  on 
State-rights,  and  on  this  question  the  two  parties  completely 
changed  sides.  The  Federalists  became  the  defenders  of 
State-rights  and  strict  construction ;  the  Republicans  the  de- 
fenders of  a  national,  a  consolidated  Government. 

""We  hold,"  said  the  Federalists,  "that  our  Constitution 
ought  never  to  be  changed  till  we  are  sure  the  change  will 
do  no  harm  to  the  Constitution  itself.  "What,  then,  is  our 
Constitution  ?  It  is  a  compact  between  independent  and  sov- 
ereign States.  It  is  a  bargain,  a  perfect  compromise  of  the 
interests,  the  rights,  powers,  influences  of  a  number  of  inde- 
pendent societies,  and  is  no  further  binding  on  the  makers  than 
is  set  forth  in  the  written  document.  Who  were  the  makers 
of  this  compact  ?  Did  the  people,  acting  on  the  worn-out 
theory  of  common  wants  and  common  necessities,  meet  on  a 
great  plain  and  then  and  there  form  a  body-politic  ?  They  cer- 
tainly did  not.  Did  the  people  choose  delegates  as  the  members 
of  Congress  are  chosen,  and  send  them,  duly  instructed,  to 
frame  a  compact  ?  They  certainly  did  not.  Of  that  noble 
band  of  patriots  who,  in  May,  1787,  met  at  Philadelphia,  not 
one  was  the  direct  representative  of  the  people.  Not  one  was 
chosen  by  the  people  at  large.  Not  one  was  deputed  to  ex- 
press their  wishes,  to  guard  their  interests,  to  explain  their 
views.  Each  was  sent  by  the  government  of  his  State,  and 
held  his  authority  from  his  State  as  a  State,  and  not  from  the 
people.  The  States,  therefore,  and  not  the  people,  formed 
the  compact  called  the  Constitution.  Having  been  made  by 
the  States,  it  follows  that  no  change  ought  to  be  made  in  the 
compact  which  can  in  any  way  harm  the  rights  of  the  States. 
But  the  proposed  amendment  does  affect,  and  injuriously  affect, 
the  rights  of  the  small  States.  The  President  is  now  chosen 


1803.  STATE-EIGHTS   ASSERTED.  185 

in  either  of  two  ways :  He  may  be  selected  by  electors  distrib- 
uted among  the  States  on  the  basis  of  population.  This  gives 
the  great  States  an  advantage  over  the  small.  He  may  be 
chosen  by  the  House  of  Representatives,  each  State  casting 
one  vote.  This  makes  the  small  States  equal  to  the  great  ones. 
But  election  by  the  House  may  be  produced  in  either  of  two 
ways  :  First,  when  two  or  more  persons  have  the  same  num- 
ber of  electoral  votes,  and  that  number  is  a  majority  of  all  the 
votes  cast ;  second,  when  no  person  receives  a  majority.  Ac- 
cept the  proposed  amendment  and  one  of  these  cases  can  never 
arise,  for  it  will  then  be  impossible  for  two  men  to  have  at 
the  same  time  an  equal  vote  and  a  majority.  The  effect  of 
the  amendment,  if  carried,  will  thus  be  to  strip  the  small 
States  of  one  opportunity  to  have  an  equal  vote  with  the  large 
States  in  the  election  of  a  President.  Not  only  will  it  give 
the  election  of  President  to  the  great  States,  but  the  election 
of  the  Vice-President  also ;  for,  if  the  great  States  can  elect 
the  one,  they  can,  by  the  same  vote  and  in  the  same  manner, 
elect  the  other.  The  proposition  is  therefore  an  attack  on 
the  rights  of  the  small  States."  * 

"  The  proposition,"  the  Republicans  answered,  "  is  nothing 
of  the  kind.  The  Constitution  is  an  experiment  and  ought  to 
be  amended  whenever  experience  shows  an  amendment  to  be 
necessary.  This  the  experience  of  1800  has  shown  to  be  ne- 
cessary. To  say  that  the  remedy  now  offered  is  an  attack  on 
the  rights  of  the  small  States  is  refuted  by  its  history.  It  has 
been  called  for  by  Eastern  States,  Middle  States,  Southern 
States,  Federal  States,  Republican  States ;  by  States  both  great 
and  small ;  by  a  South  Carolina  member  in  1797 ;  by  a  Ken- 
tucky senator  in  1798 ;  by  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont  in 
1799.  Massachusetts  approved  the  action  of  Yermont  in  1800. 
From  New  York,  from  Pennsylvania,  from  North  Carolina, 
and  now  from  Yirginia,  have  come  similar  calls.  Can  it  be 
said,  in  the  face  of  this,  that  the  proposition  is  sectional,  or 
partisan,  or  harmful  to  the  small  States  ?  Let  it  be  remem- 
bered, again,  that  the  States,  not  Congress,  amend  the  Con- 

*  See  the  speeches  of  G.  Griswold,  of  New  York,  and  Benjamin  Huger,  of 
South  Carolina,  October  28,  1803.  Also  that  of  R.  Griswold,  of  Connecticut,  on 
December  8,  1803.  Annals  of  Congress,  1803-1 804. 


186  THE  SPREAD  OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  xvn. 

stitution.  Congress  can  but  propose.  The  assent  of  three 
fourths  of  the  State  Legislatures  is  necessary  to  make  the 
proposition  an  article  of  the  Constitution.  Are  three  fourths 
of  the  States  in  the  Union  large  States  ?  No.  How,  then, 
can  the  small  States  be  stripped  of  any  rights  ?  "  When  the 
vote  was  taken  for  the  last  time  the  yeas  were  eighty-eight 
and  the  nays  thirty-one.* 

"Without  an  hour's  delay  the  resolution  was  hurried  to  the 
Senate,!  and  there  ordered  to  lie  for  consideration.  But  the 
Senate  did  not  consider  it,  and,  early  in  December,:}:  sent  a 
resolution  of  their  own  to  the  House.  Again  the  Federalists 
rallied  for  the  attack.  They  began  by  arguing  that  the  House, 
having  sent  a  resolution  to  the  Senate,  and  the  Senate  having 
given  it  no  heed  and  having  sent  an  entirely  different  resolu- 
tion on  the  same  subject  to  the  House,  had  insulted  the  House, 
and  moved  that  all  action  be  put  off  till  the  Senate  did  con- 
sider the  House  resolution.  Defeated  in  this,  they  next  raised 
the  cry  of  unconstitutionality.  To  send  a  proposed  amend- 
ment to  the  States  required,  in  the  language  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, the  affirmative  vote  of  "two  thirds  of  both  Houses." 
The  Senate  then  consisted  of  thirty-four  members.  Two 
thirds  of  thirty-four  was  twenty-three.  But  the  resolution 
had  passed  by  a  vote  of  twenty-two  to  ten.  It  had  not,  there- 
fore, according  to  the  Federalist  view,  been  constitutionally 
passed,  and  could  not  be  considered.  When  this  had  been 
settled  by  argument  and  by  citation  of  precedents,  and  settled 
to  mean  two  thirds  of  the  members  present  when  the  vote  was 
taken,  the  Federalists  asked  a  postponement  that  they  might 
bring  forward  an  amendment  to  the  resolution  providing  for 
the  choice  of  electors  by  districts.  This  was  refused  and  the 
debate  on  the  Senate  resolution  began.  The  Republicans 
were  determined  to  pass  it,  and,  though  the  Federalists  at- 
tempted to  mutilate  it  by  abolishing  the  place  of  Vice-Presi- 
dent,  by  changing  the  language  of  some  of  its  phrases,  by 
striking  out  the  provision  that  the  Yice-President  shall  act  as 
President  when,  the  right  of  election  devolving  on  the  House, 
the  House  shall  fail  to  exercise  it  before  the  fourth  day  of 

• 

*  October  28,  1803.  f  October  28,  1803.  f  December  5,  1803. 


1804.  THE  EEPUBLIOAN  CAUCUS.  1ST 

March  next  following,  sent  the  resolution  to  the  States  just  as 
it  came  from  the  Senate.*  The  time  was  fortunate.  The 
Republicans  had  never  been  so  enthusiastic.  Jefferson  was 
never  so  popular.  The  Legislatures  of  the  States  were  soon 
to  meet ;  a  presidential  election  was  near,  and  it  was  hoped 
that  they  would  therefore  act  with  promptness.  But  their 
promptness  surpassed  expectation.  When  March  ended,  ten 
States  had  ratified.  Three  more  did  so  before  August  came. 
Of  the  seventeen  States,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  Dela- 
ware alone  rejected  it.  Each  of  them  declared  it  unneces- 
sary, impolitic,  and  unconstitutional.  Unnecessary  because  it 
was  an  innovation  dictated  by  party  spirit,  and  not  by  real 
need.  Impolitic  because  it  reduced  the  power  of  the  small 
States  when  a  President  was  to  be  chosen  by  the  House  of 
Representatives  by  limiting  the  choice  to  three  instead  of 
five  names,  and  destroyed  their  influence  when  a  Yice-Presi- 
dent  was  to  be  elected  by  the  Senate.  Unconstitutional  be- 
cause it  did  not  secure  two  thirds  of  all  the  votes  of  both  the 
House  and  Senate.  In  New  Hampshire,  the  Legislature  hav- 
ing passed  the  amendment,  the  Governor  sent  it  back  with  his 
veto.  But  the  veto  was  of  no  avail,  and  in  September  the 
Secretary  of  State  notified  the  governors  that  the  twelfth 
amendment  was  in  force. 

The  amendment  having  gone  out  to  the  States,  the  Repub- 
lican congressmen  at  once  began  to  make  ready  for  the  elec- 
tion, which  they  hoped  would  take  place  under  it.  In  many 
of  the  States  the  custom  of  selecting  party  candidates  in  a 
caucus  of  the  party  members  of  the  Legislature  was  not  un- 
known. But  not  till  1804  was  the  custom  formally  applied  to 
the  selection  of  candidates  for  Federal  offices.  In  that  year  a 
few  of  the  Republican  senators  and  representatives  at  Wash- 
ington called  a  caucus  to  meet  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  Febru- 
ary in  the  Capitol.  One  hundred  and  ten  came.  Stephen 
Roe  Bradley,  of  Vermont,  was  put  in  the  chair,  and  Thomas 
Jefferson  renominated  for  President  of  the  United  States  by 
acclamation.  A  ballot  was  then  taken  to  determine  who 
should  be  the  candidate  for  Yice-President.  Six  names  were 

*  December  8,  1803.     Yeas,  83  ;  nays,  42. 


188  THE  SPREAD   OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  xvn. 

voted  for,  but  George  Clinton  was  chosen.*  A  committee  of 
one  from  each  State  was  charged  with  the  conduct  of  the 
election.f  No  formal  nominations  were  made  by  the  Feder- 
alists. They  agreed,  however,  to  support  Charles  C.  Pinck- 
ney  and  Ruf  us  King. 

In  most  parts  of  the  country  the  campaign  which  followed 
was  without  incident.  But  in  New  England,  where  it  was 
well  known  that  Democracy  had  of  late  been  making  great 
progress,  the  struggle  was  the  bitterest  yet  waged  over  a  presi- 
dential election.  The  very  closeness  of  the  contest  spurred  on 
each  side  to  do  its  utmost,  and  drove  each,  before  November 
came,  to  commit  acts  both  shameful  and  unjustifiable.  In 
Massachusetts  the  Federalists  repealed  the  law  for  the  choice 
of  electors.  In  Connecticut  the  Republicans  labored  earnestly 
to  break  down  the  State  Constitution.  Massachusetts  was 
then  entitled  to  nineteen  presidential  electors.  Under  the  old 
law  two  were  chosen  outright  by  the  General  Court,  and 
seventeen  by  the  General  Court  from  lists  of  candidates  sent 
up  from  the  seventeen  congressional  districts  by  the  people. 
The  new  law  provided  that  in  future  the  whole  nineteen 
should  be  placed  on  one  ticket  to  be  used  all  over  the  State.  ^ 
The  purpose  of  the  bill  was  apparent.  The  roll  of  each 
branch  of  the  Legislature  showed  that  the  Republicans  had 
never  before  been  so  numerous  in  Massachusetts.  Should  the 
old  system  be  continued,  it  seemed  certain  that  many  dis- 
tricts would  send  up  the  names  of  Republican  electors,  and 
that  the  electoral  vote  of  Massachusetts  for  President  would, 
for  the  first  time  in  her  history,  be  divided.  To  prevent  this, 
the  bill  was  framed ;  for,  as  the  majority  of  the  freemen  were 
believed  to  be  Federalists,  and  as  each  elector  was  to  be  voted 
for  in  every  town,  it  would  be  possible  to  choose  Federal- 

*  George  Clinton,  67 ;  Brackeuridge,  20 ;  Levi  Lincoln,  9 ;  Langdon,  7 ; 
Gideon  Granger,  4;  Maclay,  1. 

f  American  Mercury,  March  15,  1804. 

^  "  The  inhabitants  of  the  towns  and  plantations,  qualified  to  vote  for  repre- 
sentatives, are  to  meet  in  town-meeting  on  Monday,  the  fifth  of  November,  and 
give  in  their  votes  for  nineteen  electors  of  President  and  Vice  President,  whose 
names  shall  be  in  one  ticket,  and  such  ticket  shall  contain  the  name  of  at  least  one 
inhabitant  of  each  district  which  sends  a  representative  to  Congress  under  the 
law  of  March  10,  1802." 


1804.  FEDERALISTS  LOOSE   MASSACHUSETTS.  189 

ists  in  Republican  districts  bj  the  aid  of  Federalist  majorities 
elsewhere. 

The  Republicans  were  greatly  excited.  Every  argument, 
every  means  in  their  power  was  used  to  defeat  it.  But  the 
bill  passed.  In  the  House  the  vote  stood  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  yeas  to  one  hundred  and  six  nays.  Of  the  minor- 
ity, one  hundred  and  one  instantly  protested.*  In  their  pro- 
test' they  described  the  act  as  repugnant  to  the  Constitution 
and  usages  of  Massachusetts ;  as  opening  the  way  to  intrigue ; 
as  tending  directly  to  defeat  Jefferson ;  asserted  that  it  would 
prevent  freemen  from  knowing  the  character  of  the  electors, 
and  would  break  down  the  republican  principle  that  the  ma- 
jority should  rule.  For,  as  each  congressional  district  was  to 
be  represented  by  a  man  resident  within  it,  anybody  could 
see  that,  unless  the  majority  of  the  voters  of  the  district  were 
of  the  same  party  as  the  majority  of  the  voters  in  the  State, 
the  district  would  be  represented  by  a  man  from  the  minority. 
Sound  as  were  the  arguments,  the  protest  was  made  in  vain ; 
even  the  privilege  of  spreading  it  on  the  journal  was  denied 
by  the  Federalists.  Equally  vain  was  the  law;  and,  when 
election  day  came  round,  the  Republicans  swept  all  before 
them,  chose  the  Governor  by  nearly  four  thousand  majority, 
and  secured  the  nineteen  electors. 

While  the  Federalists  were  resorting  to  such  means  to 
secure  Massachusetts,  the  Republicans  were  making  efforts 
more  desperate  still  to  secure  Connecticut.  There  the  cam- 
paign was  opened  by  a  call  from  the  Republican  leaders  for 
a  festival  to  be  held  at  New  Haven  in  honor  of  the  election 
of  Jefferson  in  1801,  and  the  peaceful  acquisition  of  Louisi- 
ana in  1803.  An  address  reminded  the  people  that  he  had 
ended  the  aristocratic  influence  of  the  advocates  of  a  funding 
system  and  a  British  treaty ;  that  he  had  abolished  a  standing 
army,  a  costly  navy,  an  odious  excise ;  that  he  had  reformed 
the  judiciary  and  had  acquired,  without  bloodshed,  a  territory 
so  vast  that  its  heart  was  said  to  be  further  from  Washington 
than  "Washington  was  from  Europe ;  and  urged  all  true  Re- 
publicans to  express  in  a  public  manner  the  joy  they  must  feel 

*  Columbian  Centincl,  June  30,  1804. 


190  THE  SPREAD  OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  xvn. 

at  such  a  triumph  of  democratic  principles.  "With  the  ad- 
dress went  out  a  circular.  What  the  address  did  for  national 
affairs,  that  did  the  circular  for  State  affairs.  It  reminded 
the  people  of  the  political  power  and  abuse  of  power  of  the 
Federalists  in  Connecticut.  It  charged  them  with  having  full 
control  of  the  admission  of  freemen;  with  hindering  thou- 
sands of  young  men  from  voting  because  they  were  too  poor ; 
with  intimidating  others  by  false  statements ;  with  making 
taxation  unequal ;  with  tolerating  no  religion  save  one ;  and 
with  depriving  Republicans  of  rights  to  which  they  were  law- 
fully entitled. 

No  festival  was  held  at  New  Haven.  Hartford  was  chosen 
instead,  and  there  a  great  gathering  of  Republicans  took  place 
on  the  eleventh  of  May.  Abraham  Bishop  was  the  orator, 
and  delivered  an  oration  which  filled  the  Federalists  with  con- 
sternation. Connecticut,  said  he,  has  no  Constitution.  On 
the  day  independence  was  declared,  the  old  charter  of  Charles 
II  became  null  and  void.  It  was  derived  from  royal  authority 
and  went  down  with  royal  authority.  Then  the  people  ought 
to  have  met  in  convention  and  framed  a  Constitution.  But 
the  General  Assembly  interposed,  usurped  the  rights  of  the 
people,  and  enacted  that  the  government  provided  for  in  the 
charter  should  be  the  civil  constitution  of  the  State.  Thus  all 
the  abuses  inflicted  on  us  when  subjects  of  a  crown  were 
fastened  on  us  anew  when  we  became  citizens  of  a  free  re- 
public. "We  still  live  under  the  old  jumble  of  legislative,  exe- 
cutive, and  judicial  powers,  called  a  Charter.  "We  still  suffer 
from  the  old  restrictions  on  the  right  to  vote;  we  are  still 
ruled  by  the  whims  of  seven  men.  Twelve  men  make  the 
council.  Seven  form  a  majority,  and  in  the  hands  of  these 
seven  are  all  powers,  legislative,  executive,  and  judicial.  "With- 
out their  leave  no  law  can  pass  ;  no  law  can  be  repealed.  On 
them  more  than  half  the  House  of  Assembly  is  dependent  for 
reappointments  as  justices,  as  judges,  or  for  promotion  in  the 
militia.  By  their  breath  are,  each  year,  brought  into  official 
life  six  judges  of  the  Superior  Court,  twenty -eight  of  probate, 
forty  of  county  courts,  and  five  hundred  and  ten  justices  of 
the  peace,  and,  as  often  as  they  please,  all  the  sheriffs.  Not 
only  do  they  make  laws,  and  appoint  the  judges  to  administer 


1804.  CONNECTICUT  HAS  NO   CONSTITUTION.  191 

the  laws,  but  they  plead  before  the  judges  of  their  own  ap- 
pointment, and  as  a  Court  of  Errors  interpret  the  laws  of  their 
own  making.  Is  this  a  Constitution  ?  Is  this  an  instrument 
of  government  for  freemen  ?  And  who  may  be  a  free- 
man ?  No  one  who  does  not  have  a  freehold  estate  worth 
seven  dollars  a  year,  or  a  personal  estate  on  the  tax  list  of  one 
hundred  and  thirty-four  dollars.  Is  it  surprising,  then,  that 
Connecticut  has  furnished  none  of  the  votes  which  elected 
Thomas  Jefferson,  no  part  of  the  wise  councils  which  secured 
us  Louisiana,  and  that,  with  Massachusetts,  she  stands  one  of 
the  lonely  mourners  over  the  remains  of  federalism?  For 
these  evils  there  is  but  one  remedy,  and  this  remedy  we  de- 
mand shall  be  applied.  "We  demand  a  Constitution  which 
shall  separate  the  legislative,  executive,  and  judicial  power, 
extend  the  freeman's  oath  to  men  who  labor  on  the  highways, 
who  serve  in  the  militia,  who  pay  small  taxes,  but  possess  no 
estates.* 

In  June  this  demand  came  before  the  General  Assembly  in 
the  form  of  a  Suffrage  Bill.  Every  free  white  man,  of  age, 
who  paid  taxes,  bore  a  good  character,  and  had  served  in  the 
militia  for  one  year,  was  to  be  at  liberty  to  take  the  freeman's 
oath.  The  bill  was  lost,  and  the  Republican  leaders  at  once 
took  up  the  charges  of  Bishop  and  began  to  agitate  for  a  con- 
stitutional convention.  One  Legislature,  in  1776,  having  en- 
acted that  the  Royal  Charter  should  be  the  instrument  of  Civil 
Government  for  Connecticut,  another  Legislature  could,  they 
held,  in  1804,  enact  that  the  Royal  Charter  should  not  be  the 
instrument  of  Government.  What  one  Legislature  could  do 
another  could  undo.  Some  people  might  call  it  a  Constitution, 
but  it  was  a  law,  and,  like  all  laws,  was  subject  to  repeal.  Con- 
stitutions were  not  made  by  assemblies,  but  by  the  people. 
So  much  in  earnest  were  they  that  a  few  formed  a  committee, 
made  the  District  Attorney  chairman,  and  sent  a  circular  letter 
to  a  prominent  Republican  in  each  town,  urging  him  to  have 
the  people  choose  delegates,  or,  if  this  could  not  be,  come  him- 
self to  a  convention  to  be  held  at  New  Haven  on  the  last 

*  See  on  these  matters  "  An  Oration  in  Honor  of  the  Election  of  President  Jef- 
ferson, and  the  Peaceful  Acquisition  of  Louisiana."  Delivered  May  11,  1804,  at 
Hartford,  by  Abraham  Bishop. 


192  THE  SPREAD  OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  xvii. 

"Wednesday  in  August.*  There  were  in  Connecticut  one  hun- 
dred and  thirteen  towns.  Men  from  ninety-seven  attended. 
The  doors  were  shut,  all  proceedings  were  in  secret,  a  day  was 
spent  in  deliberation,  and  a  new  address  made  to  the  people. 
After  due  consideration  the  delegates  were,  the  address  stated, 
convinced  that  Connecticut  had  no  Constitution.  The  sover- 
eignty which,  by  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  was  taken 
from  England,  had  gone  back,  not  to  Congress,  nor  to  the 
Legislature,  but  to  the  people.  Congress,  in  1776,  had  no 
authority  to  advise  the  Legislature  to  take  up  civil  govern- 
ment. The  Legislature  had  no  authority  to  continue  the  old 
charter.  The  people  were  alone  competent  to  do  this.  They 
had  not  done  so,  and  there  was,  therefore,  no  Constitution  for 
the  State.  It  was  time  to  make  one,  and  the  principles  to  be 
observed  in  making  it  were  :  No  taxation  without  representa- 
tion; free  exercise  of  all  religions;  separation  of  the  legis- 
lative, executive,  and  judicial  powers;  independent  judges, 
universal  suffrage,  and  the  district  system  of  choosing  assistants 
and  representatives  in  Congress.f 

By  the  Federalists  the  address  was  read  with  more  excite- 
ment than  the  oration  of  Bishop  or  the  call  for  the  New 
Haven  Conference.  Every  one  of  their  newspapers  in  the 
State  instantly  fell  upon  and  abused  it.  Under  such  titles  as 
Foul  Play  ;  The  Democratic  Looking-Glass ;  Count  the  Cost ; 
New  Constitutions  made :  Old  Ones  Repaired,  Tinkered,  and 
Mended,  the  people  were  warned  to  beware  of  the  horrors  of 
universal  suffrage.  Never  yet,  they  were  assured,  had  an  ex- 
tension of  the  franchise  failed  to  bring  with  it  those  triple 
horrors,  Catholics,  Irishmen,  and  Democratic  rule.  Give  to 
every  man  a  vote,  and  the  ports  of  Connecticut  would  be 
crowded  with  ships  swarming  with  patriots  and  rapparees  fresh 
from  the  bogs  of  Erin,  elections  would  be  decided  by  the 
refuse  of  jails  and  gibbets,  and  factious  men  from  Ireland 
would,  under  the  lead  of  Duane,  inflict  on  Connecticut  just  such 
a  government  as  they  had  already  inflicted  on  Delaware,  on 
Pennsylvania,  on  New  York.  Language  of  the  same  kind 
came  Sunday  after  Sunday  from  the  pulpits,  and  the  honest 

*  Connecticut  Courant,  August  22,  1804.  f  Ibid.,  September  12,  1804. 


1804.  GENERAL  ELECTION  IN  CONNECTICUT.  193 

farmers,  persuaded  that  the  Commonwealth  was  seriously 
threatened,  stood  firm,  preserved  their  reputation  for  steady 
habits,  and  in  September  voted  for  seven  of  the  eighteen 
candidates  selected  by  the  caucus  of  Federalists  the  previous 
October.  Of  the  five  ~New  England  States,  Connecticut  alone 
was  saved  to  Federalism.  A  few  weeks  later  the  Legislature 
descended  to  the  meanness  of  revoking  the  commission  of  the 
man  who  presided  over  the  New  Haven  Conference. 

The  election  system  thus  boldly  attacked  was  indeed  most 
cumbersome.  Each  year,  in  the  month  of  September,  a 
great  State  caucus  of  voters  was  held.  Every  freeman  then 
attended  town -meeting  and  voted  for  any  twenty  men  he 
pleased  as  candidates  for  the  council  or  upper  branch  of  the 
Legislature.  The  town  officers  sent  to  the  Assembly  a  state- 
ment of  all  the  votes  cast,  and  the  Assembly,  when  the  re- 
turns were  all  in,  announced  the  twenty  names  which  stood 
highest  on  the  vote  of  the  whole  State.  In  theory  the  free- 
man was  independent.  He  voted  for  any  twenty  men  he 
pleased.  But  the  day  had  long  passed  since  he  became  a 
party  man  and  voted  for  the  twenty  selected  not  by  himself, 
but  by  a  caucus  of  managers  held  at  the  State  House.  These 
men  were  the  candidates,  and  in  the  following  April  the  free- 
men again  met  and  cast  their  votes  for  twelve  of  them.  Hav- 
ing voted  for  councillors,  the  freemen  went  on  to  vote  for  a 
Governor,  a  Lieutenant-Go vernor,  a  Secretary,  and  a  Treasurer. 
Again  a  return  was  made  to  the  Assembly.  Again  the  Assem- 
bly met,  and  in  May  counted  the  returns. 

This  count,  long  known  as  the  general  election,  was  a  sol- 
emn and  serious  duty.  On  the  day  before  the  Governor  was 
met  on  the  outskirts  of  Hartford,  where  the  May  session  was 
always  held,  by  a  company  of  horse-guards  and  escorted  with 
great  ceremony  to  his  lodgings  in  the  town.  Early  the 
next  morning  the  Assembly  chose  a  speaker,  and,  with  the 
Governor,  the  council,  the  clergy,  the  horse-guards  and  the 
foot-guards,  and  the  sheriff  of  each  county  with  his  white 
stave  in  his  hand,  walked  in  procession  to  the  first  church. 
There  some  minister,  renowned  over  the  whole  State, 
preached  the  election  sermon  on  a  text  suitable  to  the  politics 
of  the  time. 

TOL.  ni. — 14 


194:  THE  SPREAD  OF  DEMOCRACY.  CHAP.  xvn. 

The  sermon  ended,  the  procession  went  back  with  equal 
solemnity  to  the  State  House,  where  a  committee  of  the  As- 
sembly counted  the  votes.  The  announcement  of  the  names 
of  the  men  chosen  ended  the  election.  At  night  a  grand  ball 
closed  the  ceremonies  of  the  day.  To  these  annual  elections 
was  added  every  second  year  the  choice  of  representatives. 
In  April  of  the  even  years  the  freemen,  in  their  town-meet- 
ing, voted  for  eighteen  names.  In  May  the  Assembly  counted 
the  vote,  and  published  a  list  of  eighteen  candidates  to  stand  in 
nomination.  In  September  each  freeman  voted  for  seven  of 
the  eighteen,  and  in  October  the  seven  elected  were  announced. 
Presidential  electors  were  chosen  by  the  Legislature. 

As  to  what  was  the  best  manner  of  choosing  electors,  the 
States  were  almost  equally  divided.  Seven  used  a  general 
ticket ;  *  in  seven  others  the  Legislature  made  the  choice.f 
In  three  the  district  system  was  in  use,  and  the  people  voted 
for  the  electors.  % 

Excitement  over  the  election  of  a  President  was  naturally 
limited  to  such  States  as  allowed  a  choice  of  electors  by 
the  people ;  but,  in  1804,  most  of  these  were  so  overwhelm- 
ingly Republican  that  to  rouse  opposition  was  impossible.  Of 
them  all,  Massachusetts  alone  was  doubtful ;  and  there  alone 
was  the  struggle  sharp  and  exciting.  Republicans  placed  their 
hopes  of  success  on  the  justness  of  their  cause,  and  on  an  able 
defence  of  the  Administration  which  had  appeared  in  Duane's 
Aurora.  The  Federalists  controlled  the  clergy  and  the  press, 
and  summoned  to  their  aid  every  charge  which  for  four  years 
past  had  been  going  the  rounds  of  the  newspapers.  The  old 
cries  of  French  influence,  ruin  of  the  army,  ruin  of  the  navy, 
ruin  of  the  judiciary,  persecution  of  the  Federalists,  Virginia 
rule,  taxation  of  New  England,  were  heard  again.  God-fear- 
ing men  were  reminded  of  Jefferson's  friendship  for  Thomas 
Paiae.  The  shipwrights,  the  blacksmiths,  the  whitesmiths,  the 
pump-makers  and  block-makers,  the  pewterers,  the  coopers, 

*  New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  Massachusetts,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania, 
Virginia,  Ohio. 

|  Vermont,  Connecticut,  New  York,  Delaware,  Tennessee,   South  Carolina, 
Georgia. 

c^  Kentucky,  North  Carolina. 


1804.  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN.  195 

and  riggers,  were  reminded  of  his  hatred  of  mechanics  and  of 
his  wish  that  our  workshops  might  remain  in  Europe.  Tax- 
payers were  bidden  to  recall  the  frightful  extravagance  of  the 
Administration  :  the  thirty-two  thousand  dollars  spent  on  the 
French  corvette  Le  Berceau ;  the  sale,  for  two  hundred  and 
seventy-five  thousand  dollars,  of  fifteen  ships,  which  cost  a 
million ;  the  great  sums  squandered  in  sending  Republicans 
abroad  to  replace  Federalists  at  foreign  courts ;  and  the  fifteen 
millions  to  be  paid  for  Louisiana.  Do  you  know,  it  was 
asked,  what  this  means  ?  Do  you  know  that  if  the  fifteen 
millions  were  divided  among  the  States,  on  the  ratio  of  repre- 
sentation, the  amount  allotted  to  each  Congressman  would  be 
one  hundred  and  five  thousand ;  that  Massachusetts  would  pay 
more  than  four  dollars  a  head  for  each  man,  woman,  and  child 
within  her  borders ;  that  New  Hampshire's  share  of  the  inter- 
est would  be  eighty-seven  dollars  a  day ;  and  that  Connecticut 
would  be  taxed  thirty  dollars  for  every  family  ?  Thus  have 
the  professed  idolizers  of  economy  embarrassed  the  country 
with  a  debt  of  which  the  interest  is  greater  than  the  direct 
tax  of  which  they  complained  so  bitterly.  Is  this  a  subject 
for  a  thanksgiving,  or  for  a  fast  ? 

While  some  spoke  and  wrote  in  this  serious  manner,  others 
made  use  of  ridicule,  and  found  fair  subjects  in  the  salt  mount- 
ain, the  gun-boats,  and  the  feeble  attempts  to  restore  the  navy. 
Loath  as  the  Republicans  were  to  increase  it,  they  were  com- 
pelled, by  the  state  of  our  foreign  relations,  to  do  so  in  1803. 
Light-draught  vessels  must  be  had  to  blockade  the  harbor  of 
Tripoli,  and  ninety-six  thousand  dollars  were  voted  to  build 
four,  of  sixteen  guns  each.  The  near  prospect  of  war  with  Spain 
over  the  right  to  navigate  the  Mississippi  made  the  defence 
of  that  river  necessary,  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  were  set  aside 
to  build  fifteen  gun-boats.  By  the  summer  of  1804  Number 
One  and  Number  Two  were  finished  and  afloat.  They  were 
low,  narrow  craft,  clipper-rigged,  built  for  speed,  carried  a 
cloud  of  canvas,  and  had  a  solitary  gun  in  the  stern.  Number 
One  was  at  once  sent  south,  and  in  the  harbor  of  Savannah 
encountered  one  of  the  most  terrible  cyclones  that  have  ever 
visited  our  coast.  The  storm  first  appeared  at  the  Bahamas 
on  September  fifth,  and  two  days  later  struck  Charleston  and 


196  THE  SPKEAD  OF  DEMOCRACY.  OHAP.  xvu. 

Savannah,  and  passed  up  the  seaboard  to  Maine.  Spires  of 
churches,  roofs  of  houses,  trees,  buildings,  went  down  before 
it.  Stage-coaches  were  overturned,  ships  were  beaten  to  pieces, 
docks  and  warehouses  destroyed,  and  half  the  rice-crop,  and 
what  little  the  caterpillar  had  left  of  the  cotton,  was  ruined. 
Such  was  its  violence  that  Fort  Green,  off  Savannah,  was  all 
but  blown  away.  A  cannon  weighing  two  tons  was  moved 
forty  feet ;  a  bar  of  lead,  weighing  three  hundred  pounds,  a 
hundred  feet ;  and  the  whole  of  Cockspur  Island  covered  with 
muskets.  The  water  was  banked  up  till  it  was  ten  feet  deeper 
at  low  tide  than  it  had  ever  been  at  high  tide.  When  the 
floods  went  down,  Gun-boat  Number  One  was  left  high  and 
dry  in  a  corn-field  eight  miles  from  her  moorings.*  From 
the  day  of  her  launch  she  had  been  the  subject  of  Federal 
wit,  but  she  was  now  held  up  to  the  scorn  of  every  New  Eng- 
land sailor  as  a  specimen  of  the  imbecility  of  the  Virginia 
President.  At  last,  said  one,  a  use  has  been  found  for  her ; 
she  has  become  a  scarecrow  in  a  Georgia  corn-field.f  Let 
her  rest  there,  said  another,  and  she  will  grow  into  a  ship-of- 
the-line  by  the  time  we  go  to  war  with  Spain.  Should  this 
new  experiment  in  agriculture  succeed,  we  may  expect  to  see 
the  rice-swamps  of  Carolina  and  the  tobacco-fields  of  Virginia 
turned  by  our  philosophical  Government  into  dry-docks  and 
gun-boat  gardens.:}:  It  is  presumed,  said  a  third,  that  the 
commander  of  Number  Two,  which  now  lies  opposite  Alex- 
andria, is  cautioned  in  his  orders  to  beware  of  corn-fields.* 
Frightful  as  these  craft  are,  two,  more  terrible  still,  are  build- 
ing at  New  York.  In  place  of  a  waspish  sting  in  their  tails, 
they  are  to  act  offensively  at  both  ends  at  once  ;  and  the  motto 
of  the  arms  of  the  United  States,  "  Utrumque  paratus,"  which 
means  prepared  at  each  end,  is  to  be  painted  on  their  sterns.  J 
At  Boston  a  great  dinner  was  given  to  Rufus  King,  and  in 

*  Charleston  Courier,  September  10,  1804  ;  City  Gazette,  September  10,  1804  ; 
Georgia  Republican,  September  14,  1804  ;  Boston  Gazette,  October  11,  15,  1804; 
Connecticut  Courant,  October  10-17,  1804. 

f  The  Repertory,  October  12,  1804. 

$  Connecticut  Courant,  October  17,  1804. 

*  Washington  Federalist;  Connecticut  Courant,  November  7,  1804. 

|  New  York  Herald,  October  10,  1804 ;    New  England  Palladium,  October 
17,  1804. 


1804.  JEFFEKSON  RE-ELECTED.  197 

the  list  of  toasts  were  :  "  Gun-boat  Number  One :  If  our  gun- 
boats are  of  no  use  upon  the  water,  may  they  at  least  be  the  best 
upon  earth."  "  Our  Farmers  on  the  Sea-coast :  May  their  corn- 
fields be  defended  against  Gun-boat  Number  Three."*  As 
election-day  drew  near,  the  excitement  became  intense,  and, 
carried  away  by  their  excitement,  the  Republicans  resorted  to 
fraud.  Voting,  the  law  required,  must  be  done  with  written 
ballots ;  but  the  Republicans  prepared  a  quantity  of  printed 
ballots,  containing  the  names  of  Federal  electors,  which  they 
intended  the  unwary  freemen  should  use  on  election-day.f 
Happily,  the  fraud  was  discovered,  all  Federalists  warned  not 
to  use  a  printed  ticket,  and  every  young  man  who  had  an  hour 
to  spare  was  called  on  to  spend  it  in  writing  out  Federal  bal- 
lots for  distribution.^:  To  keep  the  Federalists  steady  was 
impossible.  Everywhere  they  deserted  the  party  by  thousands, 
and  carried  State  after  State  for  Jefferson.  The  most  san- 
guine Republicans  had  never  pretended  to  deny  the  Federal- 
ists at  least  forty  electoral  votes.  The  seven  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, the  nine  of  Connecticut,  the  nineteen  of  Massachusetts, 
the  three  of  Delaware,  and  three  from  Maryland,  they  felt 
sure  were  Federal.  To  their  amazement  and  delight,  the  Fed- 
eralists secured  but  fourteen.  The  defeat  was,  indeed,  most 
crushing.  In  1800  they  held  every  electoral  vote  cast  in  New 
England,  New  Jersey,  and  Delaware,  and  half  the  votes  of 
Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  North  Carolina.  In  1804  New 
Hampshire  was  gone,  and  Yermont,  and  Massachusetts,  and 
Rhode  Island,  and  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania,  and  North 
Carolina.  Even  in  Maryland  three  votes  were  lost.  From 
ten  States  they  had  fallen  to  three.  The  vindication  of  the 
administration  of  Jefferson  was  complete,  nor  can  it  be  denied 
that  the  approval  of  the  people  was  well  deserved. 

The  President  was  greatly  delighted.  The  two  parties 
which  had  once  contended  with  such  violence,  he  wrote  a 
friend,  have  almost  wholly  melted  into  one. #  But  the  cause 
of  this  melting  he  strangely  misunderstood.  The  Federalists 

*  Spectator,  October  27,  1804. 

f  Columbian  Centinel,  October  13,  1804. 
$  The  Repertory,  October  12,  1804. 

*  Jefferson  to  Volney,  February  8,  1805. 


198  THE  SPREAD  OF  DEMOCRACY.  OHAP.  xvn. 

he  believed  had  come  over  to  the  Republicans.  But  the  truth 
was,  the  Republicans  had  made  great  strides  toward  Federal- 
ism. They  had  come  into  power  pledged  to  preserve  State- 
rights,  to  lessen  executive  influence,  to  construe  the  Con- 
stitution strictly  in  accordance  with  the  principles  laid  down 
in  the  Virginia  and  Kentucky  resolutions  of  1798  and  1799. 
Did  they  do  so  ?  The  most  bigoted  Federalist  could  not  say 
they  did.  After  the  lapse  of  four  years  the  Government  was 
as  Federal  in  principle  as  it  had  been  in  the  days  of  the  Black 
Cockade  and  the  "  Addressers."  Never  was  the  Constitution 
more  broadly  construed  than  when  the  Judiciary  Act  was  re- 
pealed and  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  effected.  Never  was  the 
Executive  power  more  extended  than  when  Jefferson  was  given 
despotic  sway  over  the  Territory  of  Orleans.  Never  was  the 
Constitution  more  impudently  disregarded  than  on  the  day 
when  one  rate  of  tonnage  duty  was  laid  in  the  ports  of  Louisi- 
ana and  a  very  different  one  in  the  ports  of  the  States.  The 
great  mass  of  the  men  who,  in  1800,  voted  for  Adams,  could 
in  1804  see  no  reason  whatever  for  voting  against  Jefferson. 
Scarcely  a  Federal  institution  was  missed.  Not  a  Federal  prin- 
ciple had  been  condemned.  They  saw  the  debt,  the  bank,  the 
navy  still  preserved ;  they  saw  a  broad  construction  of  the 
Constitution,  a  strong  government  exercising  the  inherent 
powers  of  sovereignty,  paying  small  regard  to  the  rights  of 
States,  and  growing  more  and  more  national  day  by  day,  and 
they  gave  it  a  hearty  support,  as  a  government  administered 
on  the  principles  for  which,  ever  since  the  Constitution  was 
in  force,  they  had  contended.  The  fusion  of  the  two  parties 
which  so  justly  delighted  Jefferson  was  due,  therefore,  not 
merely  to  the  republicanizing  of  the  Federalists,  but  to  the 
federalizing  of  the  Republicans. 

He  was  now  at  the  height  of  his  greatness  and  his  power, 
and  may  well  be  pardoned  the  pride  with  which  on  the  fourth 
of  March  he  reviewed  his  administration  to  the  crowd  that 
gathered  in  the  Senate  wing  of  the  Capitol.  He  told  them 
how  he  had  cultivated  the  friendship  of  foreign  nations ;  how 
he  had  suppressed  unnecessary  offices,  useless  establishments, 
extravagant  expenses ;  and  swept  away  an  odious  system  of 
internal  taxes.  What  farmer,  he  asked,  what  laborer,  what  me- 


1805.  THE  INAUGURAL  SPEECH.  199 

chanic  now  sees  a  tax-gatherer  of  the  United  States  ?  Though 
collected  solely  on  the  frontier  and  the  seaboard,  the  revenue 
was  enough  and  more  than  enough.  It  enabled  us  to  pay 
the  expenses  of  the  Government,  to  fulfil  our  contracts 
with  foreign  nations,  extinguish  the  Indian  right  to  the  soil, 
buy  Louisiana,  and  cut  down  the  national  debt  so  rapidly 
that  the  day  of  its  extinguishment  was  near.  Once  paid,  the 
surplus  revenue  might,  if  the  Constitution  were  amended,  be 
divided  among  the  States,  to  be  used  for  roads,  for  canals,  for 
arts,  manufactures,  and  education.  The  prospect  was  indeed 
a  fair  one.  Well  might  he  be  proud.  Never  before  had  the 
people  been  so  prosperous  and  so  happy.  But  his  dreams 
were  soon  to  be  followed  by  a  terrible  awakening.  His  past 
was  bright,  but  before  him  were  four  years  crowded  with 
such  shame,  with  such  humiliations,  with  such  disasters  as  no 
other  President  has  been  called  on  to  bear. 


200  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.  OHAP.  xvm. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

FKEE   TEADE   AND    SAILORS'    EIGHTS. 


DESPITE  the  jeers  and  scoffs  of  New  England  fishermen, 
the  gun-boat  building  went  rapidly  on,  and  shortly  after  the 
inauguration  twelve  of  the  fifteen  were  finished.  Had  Jeffer- 
son been  able  to  carry  out  his  wishes,  they  would  have  been 
assigned  to  stations  along  the  coast,  pulled  up  out  of  the  water 
and  protected  from  the  rain  and  sun  by  sheds.  But  this  was 
not  to  be.  The  Barbary  war  was  believed  to  be  still  dragging 
on ;  the  need  of  light  craft  to  blockade  Tripoli  was  thought  to 
be  imperative,  and  nine  were  soon  on  their  way  to  Africa. 
Bold  was  the  venture,  for  so  small  were  they  that,  when  rigged, 
armed,  manned,  provisioned,  and  ready  for  sea,  their  gun- 
wales were  not  two  feet  from  the  water.  But  men  who  knew, 
felt  sure  that  by  putting  below  the  two  guns  each  carried,  and 
sailing  at  that  time  of  year  when  the  ocean  was  the  smoothest 
and  the  storms  least  violent,  the  voyage  could  be  made  with 
safety.  Nor  were  they  mistaken,  for  all  save  one  reached 
their  haven  at  Syracuse.  Number  Seven  went  down  with  all 
on  board.  To  number  Six  befell  two  adventures.  Off  the 
Western  Islands  a  British  frigate,  seeing  the  cloud  of  canvas 
and  no  hull,  mistook  her  for  a  raft  carrying  wrecked  mariners, 
and  bore  down  to  give  aid.  Off  Cadiz  three  of  her  crew  were 
impressed. 

The  mission  on  which  these  boats  were  bound  richly  de- 
serves a  passing  notice.  It  will  be  remembered  that  in  the 
Spring  of  1801,  Jussuf  Caramalli,  Pasha  of  Tripoli,  hewed 
down  the  flag-staff  at  the  American  Consulate,  and  by  that  act 
declared  war.*  It  will  be  remembered  how  Commodore  Dale 

*  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,  vol.  ii,  p.  592. 

f 


1802.  THE  BAEBAKY  WAR.  201 

was  sent  with  a  little  squadron  to  display  the  American 
flag  in  the  Mediterranean ;  *  how  one  of  his  ships  captured 
and  dismantled  a  Tripolitan  polacre ;  f  how,  in  obedience  to 
orders,  he  sailed  for  the  United  States  in  December,  1801 ; 
and  how  Jefferson  in  his  message  explained  all  this,  and  told 
Congress  that  he  could  do  no  more,  as  it  was  not  in  the  power 
of  the  President  to  bid  a  naval  officer  make  war.  J  No  such 
scruples  were  felt  by  Congress.  That  body  looked  on  the 
Barbary  Powers  as  no  better  than  a  horde  of  pirates,  to  declare 
war  against  whom  would  be  a  useless  formality.  But  the 
President  must  be  humored,  and,  to  remove  his  scruples,  an  act 
was  passed  for  the  protection  of  the  commerce  and  seamen  of 
the  United  States  against  the  Barbary  Powers.  It  contained 
no  declaration  of  war,  yet  it  empowered  him  to  proceed  pre- 
cisely as  if  a  state  of  war  existed.  He  could  equip  as  many 
ships  and  enlist  as  many  men  as  he  thought  necessary.  He 
could  issue  letters  of  marque,  ship  crews  for  two  years,  and 
bid  his  officers  subdue,  seize,  capture,  and  destroy  the  vessels 
and  goods  of  the  enemy. 

j^1  new  squadron  was  now  commissioned,  Commodore 
Morris  put  in  command,  and  frigate  after  frigate  sent  out  till 
seven  were  in  the  Mediterranean.  But  Morris  was  not  the 
man  for  the  emergency.  He  was  zealous,  he  was  courageous, 
but  his  ships  were  ill-fitted  for  the  work  to  be  done ;  and  he 
used  them  with  little  energy  and  judgment.  They  convoyed 
merchantmen  from  Gibraltar  to  Leghorn  and  Malta,  they 
chased  a  fleet  of  wheat-boats  into  old  Tripoli,  they  destroyed 
a  fine  corsair,  they  blockaded  two  more  at  Gibraltar,  and 
wasted  weeks  lying  in  harbor  or  undergoing  repair ;  but  they 
never  molested  Tripoli.  In  this  way  1802  slipped  by,  and 
1803  was  fast  going  when  letters  of  recall  reached  him. 

At  last  the  administration  awoke  to  the  fact  that  a  serious 
mistake  had  been  made.  If  Tripoli  was  to  be  brought  to 
terms  her  port  must  be  blockaded  and  her  castle  bombarded. 
But  for  these  purposes  the  fleet  was  wholly  unfit.  The  draught 
of  the  frigates  was  too  great  to  enable  them  to  command  the 

*  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,  p.  592. 
f  Ibid.,  p.  602.  t  Ibid.,  p.  601. 


202  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.  CHAP.  XVIH. 

shore.  The  weight  of  metal  they  threw  was  too  light  to 
enable  them  to  reduce  the  batteries.  Authority  was  therefore 
obtained  from  Congress  to  supply  the  want,  and  in  the  spring 
of  1803  two  fine  brigs,  named  the  Argus  and  the  Siren,  and 
two  schooners,  the  Nautilus  and  the  Yixen,  were  built  and, 
with  the  Constitution  and  the  Philadelphia,  despatched  to 
join  the  Enterprise  in  the  Mediterranean.  Commodore  Preble 
commanded  the  squadron,  and  by  November  first  every  ship 
had  reached  Gibraltar.  Among  the  earliest  to  arrive  was  the 
Philadelphia.  Without  waiting  for  the  rest  to  come,  she 
started  for  Tripoli,  but  on  the  way  overhauled  a  Moorish 
cruiser,  with  a  Boston  brig  in  her  company,  and  took  them 
both.  At  first  the  master  of  the  cruiser  asserted  that  he  made 
the  capture  on  his  own  responsibility ;  but,  when  threatened 
with  execution  as  a  pirate,  he  brought  out  an  order  from  the 
Governor  of  Tangiers  to  seize  American  ships  wherever 
found.  Returning  to  Gibraltar  with  his  prizes,  Cambridge 
left  them  there  and  once  more  departed  for  Tripoli. 

Soon  after  his  departure  Preble  arrived,  and,  learning  that 
Morocco  had  joined  in  the  war,  united  the  vessels  he  had  come 
to  relieve  with  such  of  his  squadron  as  were  at  Gibraltar,  ran 
across  to  Tangiers,  brought  the  Emperor  to  terms,  and  forced 
him  to  exchange  prisoners  and  renew  the  old  treaty  of  1786. 
From  Tangiers  Preble  now  bent  his  course  toward  Syracuse. 
When  off  the  island  of  Sardinia  he  spoke  an  English  frigate, 
and  heard,  with  deep  regret,  that  the  Philadelphia  had,  three 
weeks  before,  been  captured  by  the  Turks.  It  seems  that  one 
morning  in  October,  while  cruising  on  his  station,  Bainbridge 
descried  a  large  xebec  in  shore  and  standing  for  Tripoli. 
Sail  was  made  to  cut  her  off,  but,  as  the  Philadelphia  sped 
along,  firing  and  sounding  at  intervals,  the  water  suddenly 
shoaled,  and,  a  moment  later,  the  frigate  struck  a  hidden  reef, 
shot  up  on  it,  and  stood  fast.  That  moment  her  fate  was 
sealed.  She  was  alone.  No  aid  was  near.  The  town  was 
plainly  in  sight,  not  a  league  away,  and  down  the  harbor  were 
coming  nine  Turkish  gun-boats,  attracted  by  the  firing.  Every- 
thing known  to  seamen  was  done  to  get  her  off.  All  anchors 
save  one  were  cut  from  her  bows.  The  guns  were  run  aft, 
and  finally  thrown  into  the  sea;  still  she  did  not  move.  In 


1804.  THE  PHILADELPHIA  BURNED.  203 

desperation  the  main-mast  was  then  cut  away,  the  water-casks 
started,  the  water  pumped  out,  and  every  article  of  weight 
hove  overboard.  Even  then  she  would  not  move,  and,  unable 
to  do  more,  the  magazine  was  drowned,  the  pumps  choked, 
the  ship  scuttled,  and  the  flag  hauled  down.  Then  the  Turks 
came  over  the  side  by  scores,  plundered,  robbed,  half  stripped 
the  crew  and  carried  them,  late  at  night,  before  the  Pasha. 
With  infinite  pains  the  Philadelphia  was  next  dragged  from 
the  reef  and  anchored  off  the  castle  walls.  Then  followed  an 
exploit  still  regarded,  and  justly,  as  among  the  most  splendid 
achievements  in  the  history  of  our  navy.  Bainbridge,  in  a 
letter  to  Preble,  suggested  that  the  frigate  be  destroyed.  The 
Commodore  approved,  and,  on  a  January  night,  1804,  in  the 
dark  of  the  moon.  Stephen  Decatur,  with  a  picked  crew, 
entered  the  harbor,  boarded  and  captured  the  frigate,  and  gave 
her  to  the  flames. 

Both  at  home  and  abroad  the  effect  of  this  exploit  was 
great.  At  Syracuse  the  victors  were  received  with  warm 
congratulations  and  salutes.  Every  crew  caught  their  spirit 
and  waited  eagerly  for  the  day  when  Preble  would  lead  his 
whole  fleet  against  Tripoli.  At  home  the  cheering  influence 
of  the  victory  was  badly  needed.  News  of  the  wreck  of  the 
Philadelphia  was  sent  to  Congress  late  in  March,  together 
with  a  request  for  more  ships  and  more  money.  In  the  House 
the  message  went  to  the  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means. 
Without  a  moment's  delay,  the  chairman  repaired  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  asked  what  was  the  greatest 
sum  that  could  possibly  be  spared.  He  was  answered,  Not  a 
penny  above  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars.  But 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  was  the  very  least  that 
could  be  got  along  with.  As  the  Treasury  could  not  spare  so 
much,  it  was  clear  that  new  taxes  must  be  levied,  and  these 
new  taxes  were  provided  for  in  the  bill  which,  the  next  day, 
was  reported  to  the  House  by  the  committee.  Under  the  title 
of  a  bill  further  to  protect  the  commerce  and  seamen  of  the 
United  States  against  the  Barbary  Powers,  it  provided  that 
after  June  thirtieth,  1804,  all  goods  imported  into  the  United 
States  and  paying  an  ad  valorem  duty  should,  in  addition  to  that 
duty,  pay  two  and  a  half  per  cent.,  or,  if  they  came  in  vessels 


204:  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.  CHAP.  xvm. 

not  owned  in  the  United  States,  twelve  and  a  half  per  cent, 
more ;  that  the  money  so  collected  should  be  called  the  Medi- 
terranean Fund ;  that  a  distinct  account  should  be  kept  of  it ; 
that  it  should  be  applied  to  no  other  purpose  than  waging  war 
against  the  Barbary  Powers ;  and  should  stop  three  months 
after  peace  was  declared.  Another  section  gave  the  President 
authority  to  build  two  ships  of  sixteen  guns  each,  and  borrow 
or  hire  as  many  gun-boats  in  the  Mediterranean  as  he  saw  fit. 
Every  one  agreed  that  the  money  must  be  raised.  A  few  ob- 
jected to  the  manner  of  raising,  but  they  were  quickly  si- 
lenced, left  the  room,  and  when  the  yeas  and  nays  were  taken 
not  one  voice  answered  Nay. 

Thus  provided  with  money  and  authority,  the  President 
ordered  four  more  frigates  to  be  put  in  commission  and  sent, 
as  soon  as  they  were  ready,  to  Africa.  For  the  command  he 
chose  Commodore  James  Barron,  and  instructed  him  to  carry 
out,  as  Navy  Agent,  William  Eaton,  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able of  that  interesting  class  of  adventurers  to  whom  our 
country  owes  so  much. 

Eaton  was  born  in  the  town  of  Woodstock,  Connecticut, 
where  his  father  supported  a  large  family  by  farming  all 
summer  and  teaching  school  all  winter.  That  love  of  ad- 
venture which  made  him  so  famous  in  after-life  was  early 
displayed,  and  at  sixteen  he  ran  away  from  home,  joined  the 
Continental  army,  and  rose  in  time  to  be  sergeant.  The  war 
over  and  the  army  disbanded,  he  turned  his  thoughts  toward 
an  education,  and  in  1784  began  to  study  Latin  and  Greek. 
He  next  grew  religious,  and  in  1785  joined  the  church  and 
entered  Dartmouth  College,  with  a  view  to  becoming  a  minis- 
ter. But  two  years  passed  before  he  could  take  his  place  in 
the  Freshman  class,  and  long  before  that  time  all  notion  of 
the  ministry  had  vanished.  In  1790  he  graduated,  an  active, 
restless,  adventure-loving  youth,  and  began  his  career.  First 
he  taught  school  at  Windsor,  in  Yermont ;  then  he  dabbled  in 
politics,  and  was  made  clerk  of  the  House  of  Delegates.  He 
next  obtained,  through  the  influence  of  Stephen  Roe  Bradley, 
whom  he  had  helped  elect  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
a  commission  as  captain  in  the  army,  and  for  a  while  he  fought 
Shawnees  in  Ohio  and  Seminoles  in  Georgia,  till  an  unjust 


1804.  WILLIAM  EATON.  205 

court-martial  cut  short  his  army  career,  and  the  Government, 
in  return,  made  him  Consul  to  Tunis,  and  sent  him,  with  trib- 
ute, to  Algiers.  He  was  still  in  Africa  when  the  Barbary  war 
opened  and  Commodore  Dale  appeared  before  Tripoli  with 
his  fleet.  The  scheme  which  now  started  to  Eaton's  mind 
was  such  as  any  man  might  conceive,  but  such  as  he  alone 
would  persistently  attempt  to  carry  out.  Some  years  before, 
the  reigning  Pasha  of  Tripoli  had  usurped  the  throne  and  had 
driven  his  elder  brother,  Hamet,  into  exile.  This  elder  brother 
Eaton  now  proposed  should  be  restored  to  the  throne,  as  a  sig- 
nal punishment  to  Jussuf .  Seeking  him  in  Tunis,  Eaton  found 
him  ready  to  enter  into  the  scheme,  and  agreed  that  he  should 
attack  Tripoli  on  land  while  the  fleet  bombarded  it  from 
the  sea.  Nothing  seemed  easier.  All  Tripoli,  he  believed, 
was  ready  for  revolt.  The  suffering  entailed  by  the  blockade, 
the  tyranny  of  the  Pasha,  and  the  appearance  of  the  Ameri- 
can fleet  had  brought  the  Turks  to  the  verge  of  insurrection. 
Unhappily,  opposition  came  from  a  quarter  whence  Eaton  had 
expected  hearty  assistance.  Jussuf  Caramalli  grew  timid  and 
began  to  listen  to  overtures  from  Hamet.  The  officers  of  the 
fleet  would  not  hear  of  the  scheme.  To  manage  Hamet  was 
not  difficult,  and,  after  thoroughly  frightening  him,  he  was  sent 
off  to  Malta.  To  manage  the  captains  of  the  frigates  was 
impossible,  and,  after  wasting  two  years  and  twenty  thousand 
dollars,  Eaton  went  back  to  the  United  States  to  explain  his 
accounts  and  seek  aid  at  Washington.  So  successful  was  he 
that  Jefferson  appointed  him  Navy  Agent  of  the  United 
States  for  the  Barbary  Powers,  and  thought  seriously  of  send- 
ing him  out  with  a  thousand  stand  of  arms,  some  artillery, 
and  forty  thousand  dollars.  But  when  word  came  that  Hamet 
had  gone  to  Derne,  had  gathered  an  Arab  mob  about  him,  and 
had  been  driven  by  his  brother  to  take  refuge  in  Upper  Egypt. 
Jefferson  changed  his  mind,  and  when  Eaton  sailed  with  Bar- 
ron  he  had  neither  money,  guns,  nor  much  authority.  His 
mission  was  to  join  Hamet,  raise  an  army,  and  rescue  the 
American  prisoners  at  Tripoli.  On  reaching  Malta  in  Sep- 
tember, Barren  learned  that  during  the  summer  Preble  had 
been  all  activity ;  had  collected  his  ships,  had  borrowed  eight 
gun-boats  from  the  King  of  Naples,  and  had  five  times  bom- 


206  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.  CHAP.  xvm. 

barded  Tripoli.  Never  in  naval  warfare  had  there  been 
fighting  more  terrible.  The  boarding,  the  hand-to-hand  con- 
flicts, the  desperate  personal  combats  between  commanders 
armed  with  pike  and  sword,  were  long  the  glory  of  what  was 
fondly  called  "  our  infant  navy."  For  a  generation  engrav- 
ings of  Decatur  struggling  with  the  Turk,  of  Lieutenant 
Trippe  thrusting  his  pike  through  the  body  of  the  Tripoli- 
tan  commander,  adorned  the  windows  of  the  print-shops. 
The  fifth  battle  took  place  on  the  third  of  September,  and 
was  followed  on  the  night  of  the  fourth  by  an  accident  as 
terrible  as  it  is  mysterious. 

The  ketch  Intrepid,  the  same  in  which  Decatur  made  his 
attack  on  the  Philadelphia,  had  been  turned  into  a  floating 
mine  and  given  in  charge  of  Captain  Somers  and  a  picked 
crew.  lie  was  to  take  her  into  the  harbor  of  Tripoli,  set  fire 
to  it,  and  leave  it  to  explode  among  the  gun-boats  and  galleys 
of  the  enemy.  About  eight  in  the  evening  the  Intrepid  got 
under  way,  and,  accompanied  by  the  Vixen,  the  Argus,  the 
Nautilus,  the  Siren,  and  two  fast  rowing  boats  to  bring  off 
the  men,  stood  in  toward  the  entrance  of  the  harbor.  At  the 
entrance  the  other  vessels  left  her  to  await  the  return  of  the 
crew,  and,  passing  in,  she  slowly  disappeared  forever  in  the 
low,  dense  haze  that  covered  the  sea.  Then  followed  a  few 
minutes  of  breathless  anxiety  on  the  part  of  the  watchers ;  a 
few  minutes  of  heavy  firing  from  the  enemy's  batteries ;  a 
blaze  of  fire  streaming  toward  the  sky ;  an  explosion  that 
shook  the  cruisers  riding  in  the  offing;  the  sound  of  shells 
falling  on  the  rocks,  and  the  Intrepid  was  no  more.  Not  a 
man  of  all  that  gallant  band  escaped  to  tell  the  tale. 

A  week  after  this  event  Eaton  reached  Malta,  and,  as  soon 
as  Preble  had  transferred  his  command  to  Barron,  was  sent  in 
the  Argus  to  Egypt.  In  November  he  was  at  Alexandria. 
In  December  he  entered  Grand  Cairo,  where  his  energy,  his 
stubbornness,  his  zeal  swept  all  before  him.  He  won  over  the 
Yiceroy  and  persuaded  him  to  suffer  Hamet,  who,  with  the 
Mamelukes,  was  waging  war  against  him,  to  cross  his  lines  and 
enter  Egypt.  He  collected  troops,  camels,  stores,  and  in  March, 
1805,  began  his  journey  across  the  Libyan  Desert  for  Derne. 
With  him  went  marines  and  cannoneers  from  the  American 


1805.  CAPTURE  OF  DERNE.  207 

ships,  Christians  from  every  part  of  the  earth,  Greeks,  Turks, 
Barbary  Arabs,  camel-drivers,  in  all  some  five  hundred  men, 
with  one  hundred  and  seven  camels  and  a  few  asses.  Such 
another  motley  horde  never  went  forth  to  war.  His  plan  was 
to  march  to  Bomba,  there  await  the  arrival  of  the  Argus, 
Captain  Hull,  with  supplies,  and  then  conquer  the  provinces 
of  Bergazi  and  Derne.  Men  of  another  kind  might  easily 
have  made  the  journey  in  fourteen  days,  but  the  army  with 
Eaton  consumed  forty-five.  Every  obstacle  known  to  the 
East  beset  him.  His  camel-drivers  revolted ;  his  Arab  chiefs 
repeatedly  refused  to  proceed.  The  Sheiks  quarrelled  among 
themselves.  The  Mussulmans  plundered  the  Christians.  Once 
a  pitched  battle  almost  took  place  for  the  possession  of  the 
provisions.  When  at  last  Bomba  was  reached,  not  a  ship  was 
to  be  seen.  Then  the  Arabs  grew  furious,  and  had  not  the 
Hornet  and  the  Argus  come  in  with  provisions,  the  situation 
would  have  been  most  serious.  After  resting  and  refreshing 
his  men  for  three  days,  Eaton  pushed  on  to  Derne  and  stormed 
it,  and  for  the  first  time  in  our  history  our  flag  floated  over  a 
city  of  the  Old  World.  Three  times  the  reigning  Pasha 
attempted  to  pull  it  down  and  failed.  But  what  could  not 
be  done  by  the  arms  of  Jussuf  Caramalli  was  done  by  the 
jealousy  of  Commodore  Rogers  and  the  hot  haste  of  Tobias 
Lear. 

Lear  was  Consul-General  of  the  United  States  at  Algiers, 
and  had  been  commissioned  to  negotiate  peace  with  Tripoli 
when,  in  the  opinion  of  the  commander  of  the  American  fleet, 
the  time  for  making  peace  arrived.  Barren  felt  sure  the  time 
had  come,  and  he  was  right.  But  neither  he  nor  Commodore 
Rodgers  nor  Lear  was  man  enough  to  use  it.  The  flag  of  the 
United  States  was  flying  over  Derne,  the  second  city  in  im- 
portance in  the  regency.  Tripoli  was  threatened  with  a  bom- 
bardment, compared  with  which  the  attacks  of  Preble  would 
have  been  mere  play.  The  Turks  were  suffering  all  the  horrors 
of  a  long  blockade.  The  past  tyranny  of  Jussuf  and  the 
presence  of  Hamet  had  brought  the  people  almost  to  the  verge 
of  revolt.  Yet,  when  Lear  appeared  off  Tripoli  in  the  Essex, 
he  accepted  with  eagerness  a  peace  most  shameful  to  the 
United  States.  Barren  had  then  gone  home  sick.  The  com- 


208  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  EIGHTS.  CHAP.  xvm. 

mand  of  the  squadron  had  passed  to  Commodore  Rodgers, 
who,  jealous  of  the  success  of  Eaton,  basely  refused  to  sustain 
him  further.  Lear,  thus  free  to  negotiate,  signed  a  treaty 
which  left  Hamet  to  the  vengeance  of  his  brother,  which  com- 
pelled Eaton  to  quit  Derne,  \vhich  relieved  the  United  States 
from  the  payment  of  tribute,  but  forced  her  to  pay  sixty  thou- 
sand dollars  for  the  release  of  Americans  in  the  hands  of  the 
Pasha.  But  one  more  step  was  needed  to  complete  this 
shameful  deed,  and  that  was  quickly  taken.  The  Constellation 
was  sent  to  Derne ;  Hamet  was  privately  informed  of  the 
treaty,  false  reports  of  further  war  were  spread  among  the 
soldiers,  ammunition  was  issued,  rations  were  given  out,  and, 
in  the  dead  of  night,  Eaton,  Hamet,  the  Greeks,  and  the 
Americans  were  hurried  on  board  the  Constellation.  But  the 
treachery  was  discovered,  and,  as  the  last  boat-load  pushed  off 
for  the  frigate,  the  people  and  the  soldiers  crowded  the  camp, 
the  battery,  and  the  shore,  filling  the  air  with  lamentations, 
and  loading  the  Americans  with  curses  only  too  well  deserved. 

Thus  ended  the  war  with  Tripoli.  The  treaty  was  signed  on 
June  third.  The  gun-boats  reached  Syracuse  in  a  few  weeks, 
and  on  August  first  Rodgers  entered  the  bay  of  Tunis  in  order 
to  bring  the  ruler  of  that  city  to  terms.  He  was  successful, 
and  the  gun-boats  and  frigates  were  then  sent  back  gradually 
to  the  United  States.  The  cost  of  the  four  years'  war  thus 
waged  with  the  Barbary  Powers  had  been  great.  Nor  had 
the  loss  of  life  been  inconsiderable.  But  the  gain  was  well 
worth  the  cost.  The  discipline,  the  experience  gained  in  real 
fighting,  the  splendid  exhibitions  of  seamanship,  the  splendid 
exhibitions  of  courage  in  the  destruction  of  the  Philadelphia, 
in  the  midnight  death  of  Somers,  in  the  hand-to-hand  fights 
upon  the  decks  of  Tripolitan  gun-boats,  bred  that  navy  to 
which  our  country  was  soon  to  look  for  defence  against  the 
ruler  of  all  seas.  Never  before  had  our  foreign  relations 
worn  so  serious  an  aspect.  Henceforth  to  keep  the  peace 
with  England,  France,  and  Spain  was  hard.  Nay,  with  Spain 
the  crisis  had  come,  and  on  the  May  day  when  Lear  in  the 
Essex  entered  the  harbor  of  Tripoli,  Monroe  quit  Madrid  in 
disgust. 

The  inauguration  over  and  Congress  dispersed,  Jefferson 


1805.  TROUBLE  WITH  SPAIN.  209 

set  off  for  Monticello.  He  spoke  in  his  address  of  his  earnest 
endeavor  to  keep  friends  with  foreign  nations,  and  with  those 
nations,  above  all,  to  whom  our  interest  bound  us  most  closely. 
But  he  had  not  been  many  days  at  home  when  letters  and  de- 
spatches began  to  arrive  which  showed  him  that  in  one  quarter 
friendship  was  seriously  threatened.  First  came  the  letter 
of  Talleyrand  to  Armstrong ;  then  the  despatches  of  Pinck- 
ney  and  Monroe ;  and  at  last  the  news  that  negotiations  at 
Madrid  had  abruptly  ended.  Alarmed  and  angry,  he  turned 
first  to  Madison  and  then  to  the  Secretaries  for  advice  what 
to  do.  Madison  was  for  dropping  the  questions  which  had 
caused  the  rupture,  taking  up  those  which  Monroe  and  Pinck- 
ney  had  not  touched,  and  beginning  another  negotiation  with 
Spain.*  Jefferson  was  for  taking  up  arms,  forming  an  alli- 
ance with  England,  and  stipulating  that  peace  should  not  be 
made  with  ^Napoleon  till  West  Florida  and  the  spoliation 
claims  had  been  secured  to  the  United  States,  f  Gallatin  was 
for  peace.  To  fight  would  cost  more  than  Florida  was  worth. 
Monroe  and  Livingston  ought  to  have  settled  the  boundary  of 
Louisiana  when  they  made  the  convention  of  1803.  As  they 
did  not,  the  Sabine  and  the  Perdido  should  be  taken  as  the 
boundaries,  some  money  spent  on  the  militia,  a  million  appro- 
priated for  ships  of  the  line,  and,  with  this  as  a  threat,  negoti- 
ations renewed  at  once.ij:  Smith  was  for  more  gun-boats, 
twelve  new  seventy-fours,  and  then,  if  necessary,  an  alliance 
with  England,  and  war  with  France  and  Spain.*  Advice  so 
various  was  worse  than  none.  Jefferson  was  still  unable  to 
determine  what  to  do  when  another  letter  from  Armstrong, 
and  the  report  that  came  from  Orleans  Territory,  at  last  en- 
abled him  to  make  up  his  mind. 

Armstrong  urged  him  to  seize  Texas  and  break  off  all 
intercourse  with  Spain.  For  a  while  Jefferson  seems  to  have 
thought  seriously  of  doing  so.  Indeed,  he  drew  a  plan  of 
action  and  named  a  day  when  the  Secretaries  should  meet  at 

*  Madison  to  Jefferson,  August  2,  1805.    Jefferson  Papers,  State  Department, 
f  Jefferson  to  Madison,  August  4  and  IT,  1805.     Madison  Manuscripts,  State 

Department,  August  27,  1805.     Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  iv,  p.  585. 

$  Gallatin  to  Jefferson,  September  12,  1805.    Gallatin's  Works,  vol.  i,  p.  241. 

*  Robert  Smith  to  Jefferson,  September  10,  1805.     Jefferson  Papers. 

VOL.  m.— 15 


210  FREE  TKADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.  CHAP.  xvm. 

Washington  and  discuss  it.  Congress  was  to  be  asked  for 
power  to  drive  the  Spaniards  out  of  Texas,  for  power  to  sus- 
pend diplomatic  relations  with  Spain  at  will,  and  for  a  com- 
mission to  determine  the  amount  of  claims  for  spoliation. 
But  long  before  the  Secretaries  met  the  London  packet  brought 
over  word  that  a  new  decision  had  been  rendered  at  the  Cock- 
pit, that  a  new  restriction  had  been  laid  on  neutral  trade,  that 
eighteen  American  merchant-ships  had  been  condemned,  and 
that  the  condemnation  of  thirty  more  was  daily  expected.  From 
that  hour  all  thought  of  an  alliance  with  England  was  given  up. 

The  time  was  now  come  for  vigorous  measures  promptly 
carried  out.  Not  a  post-rider  entered  Washington  but  his  bag 
contained  an  account  of  some  new  outrage,  some  new  insult 
offered  at  our  very  doors.  Our  seamen  were  impressed  in 
sight  of  our  light-houses.  Our  ports  were  blockaded  and  our 
ships  examined  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States. 
Englishmen  and  Frenchmen,  Spaniards,  pirates,  picaroons, 
corsairs  made  prize  of  American  ships  in  every  quarter  of  the 
civilized  world.  Troops  were  gathering  along  our  borders. 
Texas,  which  belonged  to  us,  was  withheld  by  force.  At 
Paris,  Armstrong  was  treated  with  gross  insolence.  At  Lon- 
don, Monroe  was  treated  with  gross  neglect.  At  New  Or- 
leans, Spanish  soldiers  still  lingered  in  defiance  of  the  terms  of 
purchase. 

A  great  bundle  of  letters  from  Claiborne,  Governor  of 
Mississippi  Territory,  and  from  General  Wilkinson,  commander 
of  the  army,  set  forth  that  the  garrisons  of  Mobile  and  Baton 
Rouge  had  been  strengthened ;  that  a  fort  had  been  built  in 
Trinity  river ;  that  a  Governor-General  of  military  ability  had 
reached  San  Antonio ;  that  a  regular  patrol  was  kept  up  on 
the  Sabine ;  that  hundreds  of  families  were  on  their  way  from 
old  Spain  to  settle  in  Texas ;  that  troops  were  gathering  at 
Nacogdoches  and  Matagorda ;  and  that,  both  in  Louisiana 
and  Mississippi,  horses  had  been  stolen  and  American  citizens 
insulted  and  abused  by  bands  of  Spanish  soldiers.  On  the 
Mobile  every  American  vessel  that  attempted  to  pass  the  town 
was  brought  to  and  forced  to  pay  a  duty  of  twelve  per  cent, 
on  the  value  of  the  cargo  even  when  all  the  goods  in  the  hold 
belonged  to  the  United  States. 


1805.  DESIKE  TO  BUY  THE  FLOEIDAS.  211 

The  effect  of  all  these  things  on  the  President  was  to 
change  his  policy.  When  the  Secretaries  met  again  to  advise 
with  him,  he  no  longer  thought  of  an  alliance  with  England. 
He  no  longer  thought  of  overawing  Napoleon.  Indeed,  he 
urged,  and  all  agreed,  that  it  would  be  well  to  call  on  France 
for  help.  Armstrong,  it  was  decided,  should  assure  the  Em- 
peror that  one  more  effort  would  be  made  for  a  peaceful  set- 
tlement, and  should  ask  him  to  lay  before  Spain  three  propo- 
sitions :  Five  millions  of  dollars  for  the  two  Floridas ;  a  cession 
to  Spain  of  Louisiana,  from  the  Bio  Grande  to  the  Guade- 
loupe ;  and  payment  to  the  United  States  of  all  spoliation  done 
under  the  Spanish  flag.  Claiborne,  it  was  also  decided,  should 
command  Casa  Calvo  and  Morales  and  all  the  Spanish  officers 
at  New  Orleans  to  depart.  Compared  with  the  Spanish  trou- 
bles, the  English  troubles  seemed  mean.  No  heed  was  given 
them,  and  Madison  was  left  to  dispose  of  them  in  a  book. 

In  this  new  determination  to  buy  the  Floridas,  Jefferson 
was  confirmed  by  a  letter  which  came  to  hand  next  day. 
Armstrong  was  the  writer.  Late  in  August  one  of  the  politi- 
cal agents  of  France  came  to  him  with  an  unsigned  paper  in 
the  handwriting  of  Talleyrand.  The  paper  suggested  that 
another  note  should  be  addressed  by  the  United  States  to 
Spain.  The  language  should  be  of  no  uncertain  kind.  Spain 
should  be  roused  from  her  indifference.  She  should  be  re- 
minded of  the  consequences  sure  to  follow  a  persistence  in 
her  present  course,  and  asked  to  arbitrate.  Should  she  con- 
sent, Armstrong  was  to  address  a  note  to  Talleyrand,  inviting 
Napoleon  to  act  as  arbitrator.  Napoleon" would  then  decree 
that  the  United  States  should  have  the  Floridas ;  that  Spain 
should  have  ten  millions  of  dollars ;  that  the  Colorado  to  its 
source  and  the  northwest  line  heading  all  the  waters  flowing 
into  the  Mississippi  should  be  the  western  boundary  of  Lou- 
isiana ;  that  a  strip  thirty  leagues  each  side  of  this  should  be 
a  border-land  forever ;  that  the  spoliation  claims  should  be 
paid,  and  that  Spain  should  have  the  same  commercial  rights 
in  Florida  she  then  enjoyed  in  Louisiana  and  Orleans.  Arm- 
strong would  not  so  much  as  listen  to  the  terms,  and  rejected 
them  at  once.  But,  a  few  days  later,  an  audience  with  the 
Emperor  was  given  to  him,  and  he  was  told  the  sum  should 


212  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvm. 

be  seven  millions  instead  of  ten.  Then  he  agreed  to  send 
the  despatch  to  America.  When  it  carne,  the  Secretaries 
were  again  assembled.  Again  the  Spanish  troubles  were  de- 
bated, and,  when  they  parted,  every  suggestion  of  Napoleon 
had  been  approved  save  one.  The  President  would  not  give 
more  than  five  millions  for  the  Floridas. 

Part  of  this  was  to  be  offset  by  the  spoliation  claims,  be- 
lieved to  be  over  three  millions  of  dollars.  The  remainder 
must  be  obtained  by  special  act  of  Congress.  To  ask  out- 
right for  such  a  sum  for  such  a  purpose  would,  Jefferson 
thought,  be  most  disastrous.  -Publicity  would  ruin  the  scheme. 
He  did,  therefore,  in  1805,  what  he  had  once  before  done  in 
1802.  He  gathered  up  the  papers  relating  to  Spanish  affairs, 
and  sent  them  to  Congress  without  any  indication  of  his 
wishes ;  these  he  privately  made  known  to  members  of  the 
committee  in  charge  of  the  message  and  the  papers.  Nay,  he 
even  went  so  far  as  to  draw  up  the  resolutions  the  committee 
were  to  report. 

Congress  had  assembled  on  the  second  of  December,  and 
on  the  third  had  listened  to  the  reading  of  the  annual  mes- 
sage. The  President  had  something  to  say  concerning  the 
purchase  of  land  from  the  Indians,  the  liberation  of  our 
citizens  stranded  and  made  prisoners  on  the  coast  of  Trip- 
oli, the  gallant  conduct  of  Consul  Eaton,  and  the  fine  con- 
dition of  the  Treasury.  But  the  burden  was  the  depre- 
dation committed  on  the  commerce  of  the  United  States  by 
the  armed  vessels  of  England,  France,  and  Spain.  He  told, 
in  a  few  words,  how  our  coast  had  been  infested  and  our 
harbors  watched  by  privateers ;  how  our  ships  had  been  seized 
and  carried  off  under  pretext  of  legal  adjudication ;  how  the 
pirates,  not  daring  to  approach  a  court  of  justice,  had  plun- 
dered and  sunk  these  vessels  on  the  high  sea  and  in  obscure 
places ;  how  the  crews  had  been  maltreated,  abandoned  in 
open  boats,  or  cast  on  desert  islands  without  food  or  clothes  ; 
how  new  principles  had  been  interpolated  into  the  law  of 
nations ;  how  Spain  had  hindered  our  commerce  on  the  Mo- 
bile and  obstructed  the  friendly  settlement  of  the  boundary 
of  Louisiana ;  and  how  her  subjects  had  invaded  the  Territories 
of  Louisiana  and  Mississippi,  and  robbed  and  killed  our  citi- 


1805.  THE  MONEY  ASKED  FOE.  213 

zens.  That  the  enormity  of  these  depredations  might  be  fully 
known,  the  details  should,  he  promised,  be  the  subject  of  an- 
other communication.  Three  days  later  this  promise  was 
made  good,  and  a  great  batch  of  papers  on  Spanish  affairs 
reached  the  House. 

"With  it  came  an  injunction  of  secrecy.  The  gallery  was 
instantly  cleared,  the  doors  shut,  and  the  message  heard 
with  eager  expectation.  To  the  surprise  of  all,  the  Presi- 
dent marked  out  no  plan  of  action,  suggested  no  means  of 
settlement,  and  made  no  request  for  gun-boats,  troops,  or 
money.  Unable  to  understand  what  was  wanted,  the  House 
sent  the  papers  to  a  select  committee,  of  which  John  Ran- 
dolph was  the  chairman.  Randolph  went  off  at  once  to  see 
Jefferson  in  person  and  have  the  mystery  explained.  To  his 
astonishment,  he  then  learned  that  two  million  dollars  was 
wanted  to  buy  the  Floridas.  This  request  he  protested  he 
would  not  support.  In  the  first  place,  the  money  had  not 
been  asked  for.  In  the  second  place,  even  if  the  money  had 
been  asked  for,  he  would  not  have  approved,  for,  after  nego- 
tiation had  failed,  to  offer  money  would  disgrace  the  country 
forever.* 

Though  Randolph  might  not  know  the  wishes  of  Jeffer- 
son, there  were  on  the  committee  two  members  who  did. 
One  was  Nicholson,  who  had  in  his  pocket  the  resolutions 
the  President  desired  to  have  reported.  The  other  was  Bar- 
nabas Bidwell,  who  declared  he  saw  in  the  message  a  call 
for  money,  and  moved  that  a  grant  be  recommended.  The 
motion  was  lost ;  an  adjournment  followed,  and  Nicholson 
carried  the  resolutions  back  to  Gallatin  in  disgust.  Even  he 
would  not  support  them.  Two  weeks  went  by  before  the 
committee  met  again.  During  one  of  these  weeks  Jefferson 
and  Madison  labored  hard  to  turn  Randolph  from  his  de- 
cision. During  the  second  week  he  was  not  at  Washing- 
ton ;  but  the  moment  he  came  back  Gallatin  met  him  in  the 
Capitol  and  thrust  into  his  hands  a  paper  headed  "Provis- 
ions for  the  Purchase  of  Florida."  Again  he  denounced  the 

*  See  Randolph's  account  in  Letters  of  Decius,  No.  1,  Richmond  Inquirer, 
August,  1806. 


214:  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvm. 

scheme.  The  President,  he  declared,  should  not  be  allowed 
to  have  two  sets  of  principles,  the  one  ostensible  and  the  other 
real ;  should  not  be  permitted  to  urge  vigorous  measures  in 
his  public  message,  and  then  bid  Congress  adopt  tame  meas- 
ures in  a  secret  message  ;  should  not  pose  before  the  country 
as  an  executive  whose  bold  and  energetic  plans  were  thwart- 
ed by  a  timid  Congress. 

It  was  now  quite  clear  that  Jefferson  must  make  his  choice. 
He  must  give  up  all  hope  of  buying  the  Floridas,  or  he  must 
quarrel  with  Randolph.  He  chose  the  quarrel,  and  in  a  few 
weeks  Congress  and  the  whole  country  knew  that  a  schism 
existed  in  the  Republican  party.  The  first  indication  of  this 
was  the  secret  report  of  the  committee.  They  beheld,  they 
declared,  with  just  indignation,  the  hostile  spirit  of  Spain. 
To  a  government  having  interests  distinct  from  the  people, 
such  conduct  was  a  proper  cause  for  war.  But  to  a  gov- 
ernment so  identified  with  its  citizens  as  that  of  the  United 
States,  and  burdened  with  a  debt  which  absorbed  two  thirds 
of  its  revenue,  peace  must  always  be  preferable  to  war.  When 
the  debt  was  paid,  the  United  States  might  indeed  bid  de- 
fiance to  the  world.  Till  that  time  the  interests  of  the 
Union  would  be  best  served  by  peace.  The  most  they  could 
recommend,  therefore,  was  that  as  many  troops  be  raised 
as  the  President  should  think  necessary  to  defend  the 
Southern  frontier,  and  avenge  the  insults  and  the  inroads  of 
Spain. 

Jefferson  meanwhile  had  made  known  his  wishes  to  other 
members  of  the  House,  who,  as  soon  as  the  report  had  gone 
to  the  Committee  of  the  Whole,  rallied  his  friends,  and  lost 
no  time  in  sending  after  it  three  resolutions  which  were  in 
agreement  with  his  policy.  The  first  called  for  a  sum  of 
money  to  meet  any  extraordinary  expenses  that  might  be  in- 
curred in  intercourse  with  foreign  nations.  If  the  money 
was  not  in  the  Treasury  it  was  to  be  borrowed.  The  second 
called  for  the  continuance  of  the  two  and  a  half  per  cent,  ad 
valorem  duty  which  yielded  what  was  popularly  known  as  the 
Mediterranean  Fund.  The  third  declared  that  the  House 
would  highly  approve  any  boundary  which,  while  it  gave 
ample  territory  to  Spain  on  the  side  of  Mexico,  secured  to  the 


1806.  THE  MONEY  APPROPRIATED.  215 

United  States  the  regions  watered  by  the  Mississippi  and  to 
the  eastward. 

Randolph's  report  was  next  disagreed  to.  A  bill  appro- 
priating two  millions  to  be  expended  in  negotiations  with  for- 
eign nations  was  then  passed,  and  sent  to  the  Senate  with  a 
resolution  explaining  that  the  money  was  to  be  used  for  the 
purchase  of  Florida.  The  Senate  concurred,  and  on  February 
thirteenth  Jefferson  signed  the  bill.*  But  the  whole  matter 
was  kept  secret  till  the  last  day  of  March.  On  that  day  the 
halls  and  doorways  of  the  House  of  Representatives  were 
crowded  with  men  eager  to  learn  what  the  great  secret  had 
been,  for  it  was  well  known  that  the  injunction  of  secrecy 
was  to  be  taken  off.  Some  had  confidently  predicted  that  the 
Louisiana  stock  would  be  confiscated,  for  the  belief  was  general 
that  what  seemed  the  conduct  of  Spain  was  the  conduct  of 
France  in  disguise.  Others  were  equally  sure  that  the  ques- 
tion being  debated  was  whether  there  should  or  should  not  be 
war.  When,  therefore,  the  doors  were  thrown  open  and  a  few 
members  hurried  out  and  announced  that  two  millions  had 
been  voted  to  buy  the  Floridas,  an  expression,  we  are  told, 
of  disappointment  and  disgust  passed  over  the  faces  of  all 
present. 

From  that  hour  every  Federalist  felt  sure  that  Jefferson 
was  truckling  to  France.  In  this  they  were  wrong.  Yet  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  much  was  done  to  justify  the  belief 
when  a  few  weeks  before  he  approved  the  bill  that  stopped 
all  trade  with  San  Domingo. 

The  mention  of  that  name  calls  up  the  recollection  of  one 
of  the  finest  colonies,  of  one  of  the  noblest  struggles  for  lib- 
erty, of  one  of  the  grandest  men  and  one  of  the  foulest  deeds 
in  the  history  of  revolutionary  France.  In  the  days  of  the 
Bourbon  kings  the  Crown  possessed  no  finer  dependency  than 
San  Domingo.  Her  wealth  was  great ;  her  trade  was  enor- 
mous. Seven  hundred  ships  and  seventy  thousand  seamen  were 
often  employed  in  carrying  her  cotton,  her  sugar,  her  coffee, 
and  her  indigo  to  France.  More  than  once  the  value  of  her 
imports  and  exports  rose  to  one  hundred  and  forty  millions 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  1805-1806,  pp.  1226,  1227. 


216  FREE  TKADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvm. 

of  dollars.  Her  population  was  near  six  hundred  thousand 
souls.  Four  hundred  thousand  of  them  were  negroes  in  abject 
slavery.  Forty  thousand  more  were  mulattoes  who  owned 
plantations  and  negroes,  ships  and  goods,  but  had  no  share  in 
the  government  of  the  colony.  The,  rest  were  Creoles  who 
enjoyed  all  the  political  rights  the  Crown  was  pleased  to  allow. 
Between  those  two  castes,  the  ruling  whites  and  the  rich  mu- 
lattoes, a  bitter  feud  had  always  existed,  and,  when  the  Revo- 
lution opened,  both  appealed  to  France  for  aid.  The  Creoles 
sought  relief  from  what  they  considered  the  tyranny  of  colo- 
nial government.  The  mulattoes  asked  an  equal  share  in  colo- 
nial government,  and  offered  as  the  price  of  civil  rights  one 
fifth  part  of  all  their  worldly  goods,  real  and  personal.  The 
National  Assembly  gladly  accepted  the  offer.  The  Creoles  at 
once  turned  Royalists.  Both  parties  flew  to  arms  and  a  civil 
war  began.  But  it  was  of  short  duration.  The  negroes 
caught  the  revolutionary  spirit,  and  on  an  August  night  in 
1791  perpetrated  a  fearful  massacre.  Thousands  on  thou- 
sands perished.  Thousands  more  fled  to  the  United  States, 
and  the  blacks  were  left  in  complete  control.  Then  came  a 
period  of  anarchy.  In  the  midst  of  anarchy  the  Spaniards 
and  the  English  stepped  in  to  attempt  the  restoration  of  order 
and  the  conquest  of  the  island.  They  failed.  The  National 
Assembly  abolished  slavery,  and  the  '(negroes,  free  and  led  on 
by  Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  drove  out  the  Spaniards.  L'Ouver- 
ture  now  became  in  fact,  though  not  in  name,  an  absolute 
ruler.  San  Domingo  was  still  a  colony  of  France.  A  French 
agent  still  kept  watch  at  Cap  Francais ;  but,  save  Rigaud,  the 
mulatto  general,  who  commanded  at  Jacmel,  L'Ouverture 
stood  in  awe  of  no  one.  When,  therefore,  the  United  States, 
in  1798,  suspended  commercial  intercourse  with  France  and 
her  colonies,  when  L'Ouverture  found  his  people  deprived  of 
a  flourishing  trade  and  of  supplies  of  food,  he  threw  off  even 
the  semblance  of  allegiance  to  France  and  became  an  inde- 
pendent ruler.  His  first  step  was  to  assure  the  United  States 
that  if  trade  was  renewed  he  would  protect  it.  Adams  ac- 
cepted the  assurance ;  Congress  passed  the  act  renewing  trade, 
and  early  in  April,  1799,  a  consul-general  with  diplomatic 
powers  was  at  Cap  Francais.  Hardly  was  he  there  when  an 


1805.  TEADE  WITH  SAN  DOMINGO.  217 

English  agent  with  greater  powers  reached  the  island.  In  an- 
other month  these  two  had  made  a  secret  treaty  with  L'Ouver- 
ture.  To  that  treaty  the  American  Consul  did  not  appear  as 
a  party.  But  under  it  trade  was  at  once  renewed,  food  and 
clothing  hurried  in,  and  Toussaint  was  encouraged  to  go  on. 
He  began  by  attacking  Bigaud,  shut  him  up  'in  Jacmel,  and 
while  he  besieged  the  place  by  land  the  fleet  of  the  United 
States  blockaded  the  place  by  sea.  Rigaud  was  starved  out. 
Jacmel  fell,  and  L'Ouverture  promptly  seized  the  French 
agent,  Roume.  He  was  now  indeed  absolute  ruler  of  San  Do- 
mingo. But  he  was  not  so  long.  The  treaty  of  1800  ended 
the  quasi-war  between  the  United  States  and  France.  The 
treaty  of  Amiens  ended  the  actual  war  between  Great  Britain 
and  France,  and  L'Ouverture  was  left  to  his  fate.  Late  in 
January,  1802,  a  French  and  Spanish  fleet  and  ten  thousand 
men  appeared  off  the  island.  A  race  war  began,  and  five 
months  later  L'Ouverture  was  a  prisoner  on  his  way  to  Brest, 
and  slavery  again  existed  in  the  island.* 

The  peace  of  Amiens  was  speedily  broken.  In  1803  Eng- 
land was  a  second  time  at  war  with  France.  Once  more 
an  English  fleet  was  sent  to  San  Domingo.  Once  more  the 
French  surrendered.  Once  more  the  negroes  rose,  declared 
themselves  free,  made  of  Hayti  a  negro  empire,  and  opened 
their  ports  to  neutrals.  Scores  of  American  merchants  made 
haste  to  enjoy  this  privilege,  and  great  fleets  of  merchantmen 
were  soon  passing  back  and  forth  between  the  island  and  New 
York.  As  the  sea  about  the  Antilles  then  swarmed  with  the 
privateers  of  France  and  Spain,  and  with  pirates  holding  no 
commission  whatever,  the  merchantmen  went  well  manned, 
well  armed,  and  in  company.  The  greatest  of  these  fleets  set 
sail  in  the  winter  of  1805.  The  armament  numbered  eighty 
cannon.  The  crews  numbered  seven  hundred  men.  In  the 
cargoes  were  vast  stores  of  goods  clearly  contraband  of  war, 
for  no  nation  had  yet  formally  recognized  Dessalines  as  Em- 
peror. Indeed,  though  not  a  French  ship  was  to  be  seen  in 
one  of  its  ports  nor  a  French  soldier  in  one  of  its  towns, 

*  A  curious  account  of  Toussaint  is  given  in  Buonaparte  in  the  West  Indies, 
or  the  History  of  Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  the  African  Hero.     London,  1803. 


218  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILOR'S  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvin. 

Napoleon  denounced  Dessalines  as  a  rebel  and  claimed  San 
Domingo  as  his  own. 

Louis  Marie  Turreau,  a  general  of  the  Republic,  was  then 
Minister  of  France  to  the  United  States.     He  reached  our 
country  in  November,  1804,  and  one  of  his  earliest  acts  was  to 
protest  against  the  trade  with  San  Domingo.     Madison  prom- 
ised that  it  should  be  stopped.     Indeed,  the  President  had 
already  referred   to  it  in  the  annual  message,  and  the  very 
day  Turreau  landed  in  America  a  bill  to  restrain  it  was  re- 
ported in  the  House.     The  title  was,  An  Act  to  regulate  the 
Clearance  of  Armed  Merchant  Vessels.     The  friends  of  com- 
merce protested  strongly  against  so  sweeping  an  act.     Half 
the  trade  of  the  country,  they  declared,  would   be  stopped 
by  it.     Let  it  pass,  and  not  a  merchant  could  trade  to  New 
Orleans,  to  Cuba,  to  Jamaica,  to  any  of  the  Leeward  Islands. 
The  whole  Spanish  main  swarmed  with  picaroons  lying  in 
wait  for  our  ships.      Already  the  losses   of  five   Baltimore 
insurance  companies  amounted  to  four  hundred  and  ninety 
thousand  dollars.     Not  a  day  went  by  but  new  losses  were 
added.     One  ship,  on  her  way  from  Alexandria  to  Jamaica, 
had  been  seized  and  sent  to  Cuba ;  another,  from  Baltimore 
to  St.  Jago  de  Cuba,  was,  on  her  homeward  voyage,  captured 
and  taken  to  Bara6oa  with  a  cargo  worth  forty  thousand  dol- 
lars.    A  third  had  been  chased  into  the  Savannah  river  by 
a  picaroon.     If  these  things  took  place  when  the  trade  was 
armed,  what  would  happen  when  the  trade  was  unarmed  ?    The 
enemies  of  commerce  did  not  care  what  happened,  and  passed 
the  bill  by  a  great  majority.    In  the  Senate  an  attempt  to  stop 
All  trade,  whether  armed  or  unarmed,  with  San  Domingo,  an 
[  attempt  instigated  by  Madison,  at  the  request  of  Turreau,  was 
\  defeated  by  the  casting  vote  of  Burr.     As  passed,  the  act  pro- 
J'vided  that  no  armed  merchantman  should  leave  any  port  of 
/  the  United  States  for  San  Domingo  or  Cuba  or  any  island  of 
the  West  Indies,  or  for  ports  on  the  continent  of  America 
\  between  Cayenne  and  the  south  boundary  of  Louisiana,  with- 
1  out  giving  heavy  bonds  to  bring  back  the  arms  to  the  United 
States  and  not  to  use  them  save  in  self-defence. 

When  the  letter  of  Turreau  announcing  the  passage  of  the 
act  reached  Napoleon,  he  fell  into  a  great  rage.     He  called 


1806.  SAN  DOMINGO  TRADE  STOPPED.  219 

the  trade  scandalous.  He  described  the  conduct  of  the  Amer- 
icans as  shameful,  he  declared  he  would  make  prize  of  every 
ship  that  came  into  or  went  out  of  a  port  of  San  Domingo, 
and  commanded  Talleyrand  to  say  to  Armstrong  that  it  was 
time  for  the  trade  to  stop.  But  Talleyrand  did  more.  He 
told  Armstrong  that  it  must  stop.  He  bade  Turreau  say  to\ 
Madison  that  it  must  stop,  and  Turreau  obeyed  implicitly. 

Having  thus  received  the  orders  of  Napoleon,  Congress  , 
in  turn  made  haste  to  obey,  and  on  the  last  day  of  February,  [ 
1806,   Jefferson  signed    another   San   Domingo  bill.      This    \ 
stopped  all  trade  for  one  year  with  every  port  in  the  island    J 
over  which  the  French  flag  did  not  fly.     Never  since  the 
United  States  had  a  President  and  a  Congress  had  she  been  ^~~"~ 


o 


so  disgraced.     But  there  was  no  insult  which  Jefferson  would 
not  brook,  no  degradation  to  which  he  would  not  descend  in  \ 
order  to  please  Napoleon  and  secure  the  Floridas. 

The  act  appropriating  two  millions  for  their  purchase 
passed  the  House  on  January  sixteenth.  The  next  day  two 
members  bore  it,  with  an  explanatory  message,  to  the  Sen- 
ate. On  their  return  they  found  the  doors  shut  and  the 
House  in  secret  session,  for  another  confidential  message 
and  another  bundle  of  papers  on  foreign  affairs  had  been 
sent  in  by  the  President.  This  time  the  papers  related  to 
Great  Britain,  and  contained  the  evidence  of  the  charges 
brought  against  her  by  Jefferson  in  his  message  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  session. 

The  restrictions  laid  on  the  neutral  commerce  of  the  United 
States  by  Great  Britain  in  1806  and  1807  are  so  bound  up 
with  like  restrictions  laid  by  France  that  it  is  now  necessary  to 
relate  with  some  fulness  the  history  of  the  conduct  of  these 
two  nations  toward  foreigners  from  the  earliest  times.  From 
the  beginning  of  colonization  in  America  down  to  the  French 
and  Indian  war  the  colonizing  powers  of  Europe  had  but 
one  rule  for  colonial  trade.  By  this  rule  the  mother  country, 
and  the  mother  country  alone,  could  traffic  with  her  colonies. 
Neither  England,  nor  France,  nor  Holland,  nor  Portugal,  n<5r 
Spain  would  suffer  goods  to  be  carried  to  their  colonies  under 
a  foreign  flag  nor  under  their  own  flag  on  account  of  a  for- 
eign importer.  Nor  would  they  suffer  the  produce  of  their 


220  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvm. 

colonies  to  be  carried  in  foreign  ships  to  foreign  countries 
unless  the  ship  first  touched  at  the  parent  state.  In  1756, 
however,  this  rule  was  broken  down.  France,  victorious  on 

IT** 

land,  was  ruined  on  the  sea.  Her  merchant  flag  was  well-nigh 
driven  from  the  ocean.  She  could  neither  send  supplies  to 
her  colonies  nor  bring  their  produce  to  the  marts  of  Europe. 
Then,  in  desperation,  she  opened  her  colonial  ports  to  neutrals 

_  under  certain  restrictions.  Instantly  the  ships  of  Holland, 
Spain,  and  Portugal  began  to  crowd  her  West  Indian  waters. 
But  they  were  as  quickly  seized  by  British  cruisers  and  sent 
to  the  nearest  Admiralty  Court.  There  both  ship  and  cargo 
were  condemned.  They  were  enjoying  in  time  of  war  a  trade 
from  which  they  had  been  shut  out  in  time  of  peace.  The 
courts  therefore  pronounced  them  French  by  adoption,  and 
laid  down  what  has  ever  since  been  known  as  the  "  rule  of 

I  1756."     In  substance  this  rule  is  that  a  neutral  has  no  right 

I  to  deliver  a  belligerent  from  the  pressure  of  his  enemies'  hos- 

'  tilities  by  trading  with  his  colonies  in  time  of  war  in  a  man- 

\  ner  not  allowed  in  time  of  peace. 

When  France  joined  us  in  the  war  for  independence  a 
new  chance  was  given  to  Great  Britain  to  apply  the  rule  of 
1756.  France,  however,  was  far  from  being  hard  pressed  on 
the  sea,  the  armed  neutrality  of  the  Baltic  was  not  to  be  de- 
spised, and  the  chance  went  by  unused.  But,  when  the  next 
war  began,  the  rule  was  applied,  and  applied  most  rigorously. 
n  February  first,  1793,  France  declared  war  against  England, 
and  followed  up  the  declaration  by  throwing  open  all  her 
colonial  ports  to  neutral  commerce.  England  retaliated 
promptly,  and  in  March  made  a  treaty  with  Russia  which 
bound  the  contracting  parties  to  stop  all  neutral  trade  with 
France.  In  May,  France  struck  back,  and  by  a  decree  ordered 
the  detention  of  neutral  ships,  the  seizure  of  enemies'  prop- 
erty, and  the  sale  of  neutral  provisions  for  worthless  assignats, 
and  so  began  that  series  of  commercial  depredations  which  form 
the  basis  of  the  spoliations  claims  assumed  and  but  now  being 

_jpaid  by  the  United  States.  Gouverneur  Morris  was  then  our 
Minister  at  Paris,  and  protested  so  vigorously  that  in  the  space 
of  eight  weeks  the  decree  was  twice  repealed  and  twice  en- 

^  forced  against  us.     Meantime  England  began  to  execute  the 


lT98-'06.  FRENCH  DECEEES  AND  ENGLISH   OEDEES.          221 

Russian  treaty,  and  in  June  commanded  her  cruisers  to  bring 
into  port  every  neutral  ship  found  carrying  flour,  corn,  meal, 
to  any  port  of  France.  Not  content  with  this,  she  issued,  in 
November,  1793,  a  new  order  in  council,  ruinous  to  the  French 
colonial  trade  of  neutrals.  Commanders  of  British  cruisers 
and  privateers  were  now  bidden  to  send  in  for  condemnation 
neutral  vessels  taking  provisions  to  a  French  colony,  or  bring- 
ing away  anything  a  French  colony  produced.  France  then 
laid  the  embargo  on  the  port  of  Bordeaux,  and  the  year 

1793  closed  with  one  hundred  and  three  American  ships  in 
French  hands.      Hundreds  more  were  in  the  ports  of  the 
French  Antilles,  and  these,  as  they  came  forth  on  their  home- 
ward voyage,  were  seized  by  English  cruisers  and  hurried  to 
the  nearest  vice-admiralty  court  for  judgment.     For  months 
the  maritime  news  of  the  Advertisers  and  the  Gazettes  con- 
sisted chiefly  of  accounts  of  ships  condemned  at  Halifax,  at 
New  Providence,  at  Nassau,  at  St.  Kitts.     A  great  cry  went 
up  from  ruined  merchants ;    Congress  laid  the  embargo  of   i 
1794 ;  Madison  moved  for   a   discriminating  tonnage   duty  ^J 
Dayton  moved    the   sequestration   of  British   debts ;    Clark 
moved  for  non-intercourse  with  England  ;    the  people  forti- 
fied their  ports  and  seaboard  towns,  and,  in  the  midst  of  the 
excitement,  Great  Britain  revoked  her  order  and  issued  a  new 
one.     Naval  officers  and  masters  of  privateers  were  now  in- 
structed to  send  in  for  judgment  such  neutral  vessels,  and  such 
only,  as  were  found  trading  directly  between  any  port  in  the 
French  West  Indies  and  any  port  in  Europe.     With  this  pro- 
hibition on  direct  trade  she  stopped,  and  during  four  years 

the  orders  remained  in  force.     But  France  did  not  stop.     In 

1794  she  decreed  that  free  ships  did  not  make  free  goods,  and       / 
that  an  enemy's  property  might  be  taken  from  the  hold  of  a      | 
neutral  ship.     In  1795  she  modified  this  and  laid  down  three 
rules  to  be  observed  toward  American  ships.     They  were 
that  free  ships  made  free  goods ;  that  paper  blockades  were 
invalid;   that  no  articles  should   be  deemed   contraband  of 
war  unless  so  specified  in  the  treaty  of  1778.     Such  tender- 
ness, unhappily,  soon  passed  away,  and  in  1796  all  neutrals 
were  notified  that  they  would  be  treated  by  France  in  just 
such  manner  as  they  suffered  Great  Britain  to  treat  them. 


222  FREE  TKADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvm. 

.     •• 

One  year  later  this  treatment  was  clearly  defined.  English 
goods  and  naval  stores  were  to  be  taken  from  American  ships ; 
our  sailors  were  to  be  punished  as  pirates  when  found  on 
English  decks,  and  our  vessels  condemned  when  unprovided 
with  a  "  role  d'6quipage,"  as  provided  for  in  the  treaty  of  1778. 
The  decree  of  January,  1798,  went  further  yet,  and  author- 
ized the  capture  of  neutrals  laden  even  in  part  with  British 
goods,  and  shut  every  port  of  France  to  any  vessel  which  had 
entered,  or  so  much  as  touched  at,  an  English  port.  That 
same  month  a  new  British  order  in  council  issued.  To  the 
French  West  Indies  were  now  added  the  colonies  of  Holland 
and  Spain,  and  from  them  no  neutral  was  any  longer  permit- 
d  to  go  directly  to  Holland,  Spain,  or  France.  The  restric- 
tion, however,  fell  lightly  on  neutrals,  and  they  were  soon 
evading  it  in  two  ways.  Some  would  load  at  a  colonial  port 
and,  under  the  pretence  of  sailing  to  their  own  country,  make 
a  direct  voyage  from  the  colony  to  the  parent  state.  This  was 
the  favorite  trick  of  the  neutrals  of  northern  Europe,  who,  as 
they  passed  the  coast  of  France  or  Holland,  when  homeward 
bound,  would  run  into  Amsterdam  or  Rotterdam  or  Brest. 
To  stop  this,  Great  Britain  in  1799  declared  the  whole  coast 
of  Holland  under  blockade.  Others  would  really  go  to  some 
neutral  country  and  thence  re-export  the  same  cargo  in  the 
L.jsame  bottom  to  any  of  the  forbidden  ports  they  chose. 

To  the  merchant  traders  of  the  United  States  this  kind  of 
fraud  could  offer  no  inducement.  They  were  free  to  bring 
goods  from  the  Dutch  and  Spanish  colonies  to  the  United 
States.  They  were  equally  free  to  re-export  the  same  goods 
to  Holland  or  Spain.  Their  own  coast  lay  so  near  to  the 
route  from  Europe  to  the  Indies  that  to  turn  aside,  run  into 
some  American  port,  and  thence  re-export  their  freight,  was  a 
small  matter,  especially  when  such  a  visit  would  break  the 
forbidden  direct  voyage  and  make  the  trade  safe.  The  only 
question  to  be  settled  was,  In  what  did  a  re-exportation  con- 
sist ?  Must  the  cargo  be  unloaded,  or  might  it  stay  in  the 
hold  of  the  ship  ?  Must  a  new  insurance  be  effected,  or  might 
the  double  voyage  be  covered  with  insurance  at  the  start? 
Must  the  duty  be  actually  paid,  or  would  the  usual  bond  to 
re-export  be  sufficient  ?  In  a  word,  must  the  owner  act  just 


1800.  DIRECT  TRADE  DEFINED.  223 

as  he  would  if  the  cargo  had  really  been  intended  for  use  in 
the  United  States,  and  re-exportation  were  an  after-thought 
made  necessary  by  the  unlooked-for  state  of  the  market  ? 

"While  these  questions  were  still  being  debated  in  the 
United  States,  they  were  settled  in  England  by  two  famous 
decisions  of  the  Lords  Commissioners  sitting  at  the  Cockpit  in 
1800.  Tlje  first  was  the  case  of  the  Polly,  tried  before  the 
High  Court  of  Admiralty  in  February.  The  Polly  was  an 
American-owned  ship,  searched  and  seized  while  on  her  way 
from  Marblehead  to  Bilboa.  The  claim  of  her  captor  was, 
that  her  cargo  consisted  of  boxes  of  Havana  sugar  and  hogs- 
heads of  Caracas  cocoa  ;  that  the  sugar  and  the  cocoa  were  the 
products  of  Spanish  colonies;  that  the  Polly  was  carrying 
the  cargo  to  a  port  in  Spain  ;  and  that  she  was  therefore  en- 
gaged in  direct  trade  between  Spain  and  Spanish  colonies,  and 
was  a  fit  subject  for  capture.  The  owners  admitted  that  the 
Polly  brought  the  cargo  from  Havana  in  June.  But  they 
proved  that  the  goods  had  been  entered  at  the  Custom-House 
at  Marblehead,  that  the  duty  had  been  paid,  that  the  boxes 
and  the  hogsheads  had  been  landed  on  the  wharf,  and  the  ship 
put  upon  the  stocks  for  repair  ;  that  a  new  insurance  had  been 
effected  ;  that  a  new  clearance  had  been  obtained  and  a  new 
voyage  begun  in  August.  The  Court  held  this  to  be  an  honest 
importation  and  restored  the  ship  and  cargo  to  the  neutral 
claimants. 

second  case  was   that   of  a  vessel    named  f^ 


cury.  She  had  gone  to  Havana  for  a  cargo  of  sugar  and 
was  on  her  way  home  when  she  was  stopped  and  searched  by 
a  British  privateer  ;  but  her  papers  showing  that  the  port  of 
Charleston  was  her  destination,  she  was  quietly  suffered  to  go 
on.  At  Charleston  she  remained  just  long  enough  to  get  a 
clearance  for  Hamburg,  and,  without  displacing  a  man  of  the 
crew  or  a  box  of  sugar  from  the  hold,  set  off.  But  she  had 
not  gone  very  far  from  land  when  she  was  again  brought  to 
by  the  same  privateer  that  stopped  and  searched  her  some 
days  before.  The  name  of  the  ship,  the  face  of  the  captain, 
the  crew  and  the  cargo  were  quickly  recognized,  and,  in  spite 
of  protestations  and  papers,  the  Mercury  was  sent  to  the 
nearest  prize  court  for  condemnation.  The  matter  came  up 


224:  FKEE  TEADE  AND  SAILORS'  EIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvin. 

'on  appeal  before  the  Lords  Commissioners,  and  by  them  the 
property  was  condemned.  Touching  at  Charleston  was,  they 
held,  for  the  purpose  of  pretending  to  begin  a  new  voyage. 
The  freight  had  not  been  disturbed,  the  duty  had  not  been 
paid,  no  real  importation  had  been  made,  and  the  voyage  was 
therefore  direct  and  illegal. 

'  To  those  two  cases  must  be  added  a  third,  tried  in  the 
Yice-Admiralty  Court  at  Nassau  in  1801.  An  American  ship 
laden  with  articles  grown  in  old  Spain  was  seized  on  her  way 
from  a  port  of  the  United  States  to  a  port  in  the  Spanish  colo- 
nies, was  brought  to  Nassau,  and  there  the  Yice-Admiralty 
Court  condemned  the  cargo.  The  decision  was  so  opposed  to 
the  ruling  of  the  High  Court  of  Admiralty  at  London  that 
the  American  Minister  protested.  The  protest  was  heeded, 
the  matter  was  referred  to  the  Advocate-General,  and  from 
him  came  a  long  report  on  the  subject.  He  declared  that  the 
sentence  of  the  Court  at  Nassau  was  wrong ;  that  it  was  well 
known,  and  had  often  been  decided  by  the  High  Court  of 
Appeals,  that  landing  the  goods  and  paying  the  duties  in  a 
neutral  country  broke  the  continuity  of  the  voyage,  and  was 
such  an  importation  as  legalized  the  trade,  though  the  goods 
were  reshipped  in  the  same  vessel  on  account  of  the  same 
neutral  owners  and  sold  in  the  mother  country.  « 

Thus,  in  the  course  of  a  year  and  a  half,  the  highest  mari- 
time court  and  the  ablest  maritime  lawyer  defined  precisely 
not  merely  what  was,  but  also  what  was  not,  direct  trade  be- 
tween an  enemy  and  her  colonies.  Nor  was  this  all,  for  the 
definition  was,  at  the  express  command  of  the  King,  sent  to 
each  vice-admiralty  judge  for  future  guidance  and  direction. 
Hardly  had  it  been  received,  however,  when  the  treaty  of 
Amiens  put  an  end  to  the  war,  and  trade  went  back  to  the  old 
channels.  In  1803  France  and  England  were  once  more  at 
war,  and  a  new  set  of  instructions  were  issued  to  the  com- 
manders of  cruisers  and  privateers.  Direct  trade  between  an 
enemy  and  her  colonies  was  again  forbidden.  Direct  trade 
between  neutral  ports  and  the  ports  of  an  enemy  was  again 
allowed,  provided  the  neutral  ship  had  not,  on  the  outward 
voyage,  supplied  the  enemy  with  goods  contraband  of  war. 
The  proviso  was  new  and  was  in  time  most  shamefully  abused 


1805.  IMPORTANCE  OF  NEUTRAL  TRADE.  225 

by  British  commanders.  But  the  damage  it  caused  and  the 
anger  it  aroused  was  as  nothing  to  the  ruin  produced  by  a 
new  interpretation  of  the  old  privilege  of  indirect  trade.  The 
King,  the  Advocate-General,  the  High  Court  of  Admiralty, 
had  each  agreed  in  1800  and  1801  on  a  definition  of  direct 
trade  between  an  enemy  and  her  colonies.  Supposing  the 
rulings  of  the  Court  during  the  last  war  would  be  followed 
by  the  Court  during  the  present  war,  the  merchants  of  the 
United  States  engaged  most  deeply  in  commerce  between  the  .' 
belligerents  and  their  colonies.  In  two  years  almost  the  i 
whole  carrying  trade  of  Europe  was  in  their  hands.  The^J 
merchant  flag  of  every  belligerent,  save  England,  disappeared 
from  the  sea.  France  and  Holland  absolutely  ceased  to  trade 
under  their  flags.  Spain  for  a  while  continued  to  transport 
her  specie  and  her  bullion  in  her  own  ships  protected  by  her 
men-of-war.  But  this,  too,  she  soon  gave  up,  and  by  1806 
the  dollars  of  Mexico  and  the  ingots  of  Peru  were  brought  to 
her  shores  in  American  bottoms.  It  was  under  our  flag  that 
the  gum  trade  was  carried  on  with  Senegal ;  that  the  sugar 
trade  was  carried  on  with  Cuba;  that  coffee  was  exported 
from  Caracas;  and  hides  and  indigo  from  South  America. 
From  Yera  Cruz,  from  Carthagena,  from  La  Plata,  from  the 
French  colonies  in  the  Antilles,  from  Cayenne,  from  Dutch 
Guiana,  from  the  Isles  of  France  and  Reunion,  from  Batavia 
and  Manilla,  great  fleets  of  American  merchantmen  sailed  for 
the  United  States,  there  to  neutralize  the  voyage  and  then  go 
on  to  Europe.  They  filled  the  warehouses  at  Cadiz  and  Ant- 
werp to  overflowing.  They  glutted  the  markets  of  Embden 
and  Lisbon,  Hamburg  and  Copenhagen  with  the  produce  of 
the  West  Indies  and  the  fabrics  of  the  East,  and,  bringing 
back  the  products  of  the  looms  and  forges  of  Germany  to  the 
New  World,  drove  out  the  manufactures  of  Yorkshire,  Man- 
chester, and  Birmingham. 

But  this  splendid  trade  was  already  marked  for  destruc- 
tion. That  Great  Britain  should  long  treat  it  with  indiffer- 
ence  was  impossible.  To  sweep  the  merchant  marine  of  every 
enemy  from  the  ocean,  and  then  behold  the  colonies  of  those 
enemies  grow  daily  more  prosperous ;  to  see  Guadeloupe, 
Martinique,  Cayenne,  and  the  Isles  of  France  and  Keunion 

TOL.  III. — 16 


226  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS' RIGHTS.     CHAP.  xvm. 

richer  and  more  populous  in  time  of  war  than  they  had  ever 
been  in  time  of  peace ;  to  know  that  the  distress  she  sought  to 
inflict  on  the  colonies  of  her  enemies  was  turned  into  prosper- 
ity by  the  concessions  she  had  given  to  neutrals,  yet  suffer  the 
concessions  to  remain,  was  a  piece  of  folly  Great  Britain  was 
the  least  likely  of  all  nations  to  commit.  She  determined, 
^theref ore,  to  destroy  it,  and  to  destroy  it  in  two  ways :  by 
;  paper  blockades  and  by  admiralty  decisions.  In  January, 
1804,  accordingly,  Great  Britain  blockaded  the  ports  of  Guade- 
loupe and  Martinique.  In  April  her  commander  at  Jamaica 
blockaded  Curagoa.  In  August  she  extended  the  blockade  to 
the  Straits  of  Dover  and  the  English  Channel.  Not  a  neutral 
ship  could  thenceforth  enter  Fecamp  or  St.  Yalery-en-Caux, 
Dieppe,  Treport,  the  river  Somme,  Etaples,  Boulogne,  Calais, 
Gravelines,  Dunkirk,  Nieuport,  Ostend.  In  May,  1805,  came 
the  first  great  blow  to  neutral  commerce  from  the  Lords  Com- 
missioners of  Admiralty  Appeal  sitting  at  the  Cockpit. 

A  ship  hailing  from  Salem  and  named  the  JEgsex  was 
seized  on  her  way  to  Havana.  Her  owners  had  done  what 
hundreds  of  other  merchants  had  been  doing  ever  since  the 
day  when  the  case  of  the  Polly  was  decided  at  the  Cockpit  in 
1800.  They  had  taken  on  a  cargo  at  Barcelona,  had  landed 
it  at  Salem,  had  given  bonds  for  the  payment  of  the  duty  if 
the  goods  were  not  exported,  had  mended  their  ship,  and,  re- 
laden  with  the  same  cargo,  had  cleared  her  out  for  Havana. 
In  principle  the  case  was  the  same  as  that  of  the  Polly,  and  it 
was  tried  in  the  same  court  and  before  the  same  judge.  The 
claimants,  therefore,  expected  that  the  same  judgment  would 
be  given.  But,  to  their  amazement,  the  judge  departed  from 
his  former  rulings.  He  looked  into  the  kitention  of  the 
claimants.  He  declared  the  cargo  had  never  been  intended 
for  sale  in  the  markets  of  the  United  States,  that  it  had  been 
exported  from  Spain  for  no  other  purpose  than  import  into 
Cuba,  that  the  voyage  was  direct  in  intent,  and  that  being  di- 
rect in  intent  was  so  in  fact,  and  condemned  the  ship  and  cargo. 
Two  months  later  the  Enoch  and  the  Rowena  met  a  like  fate 
for  like  offences.  The  cases  were  indeed  appealed,  but  the 
Lords  Commissioners  of  Appeal  sustained  the  decisions  and 
millions  of  dollars  of  neutral  property  were  put  in  jeopardy. 


1805.  CASES   OF  THE  ESSEX  AND   ENOCH. 

The  meaning  of  these  decisions  was  not  to  be  mistaken. 
Henceforth  not  a  pound  of  sugar  or  a  grain  of  coffee  could 
come  into  the  United  States  for  any  other  purpose  than  con- 
sumption. If  a  merchant  carrying  on  a  regular  trade  with 
any  of  the  belligerents  of  Europe  wished  to  export  West  In- 
dian goods  to  a  non-blockaded  port  of  that  belligerent,  he 
might  do  so ;  but  he  must  buy  the  goods  in  the  American 
market.  He  must  be  able  to  prove  that  the  duty  had  been 
actually  paid  at  the  Custom-House.  He  must  be  acting  solely 
for  himself,  and  not  in  collusion  with  the  merchant  who 
brought  the  goods  from  the  Indies. 

It  was  July  when  the  final  decision  in  the  case  of  the 
Essex  was  made  at  London,  and  September  when  news  of  it 
reached  the  United  States.  The  effect  was  immediate.  The 
whole  commercial  world  was  instantly  thrown  into  the  wildest 
confusion.  Thousands  of  merchants  found  themselves  with- 
out a  moment's  warning  on  the  brink  of  ruin.  Some,  whose 
ships  were  hardly  a  day  from  land,  sent  off  swift-sailing  ves- 
sels to  bring  them  back.  Others  less  fortunate  waited  in  daily 
expectation  of  news  that  their  vessels  had  been  libelled  in  the 
vice-admiralty  courts  at  Halifax  or  'New  Providence.  Still 
others,  whose  cargoes  were  safe  in  the  warehouses,  or  lay  on 
the  wharves,  were  at  a  loss  to  know  what  to  do.  They 
might,  indeed,  defy  the  rulings  of  the  English  courts,  and  go 
on  with  the  trade  in  the  old  way.  But  the  risk  was  then 
their  own ;  for  on  such  a  venture  not  an  underwriter,  not  a 
company  for  insurance,  could  be  persuaded  to  stake  one  dol- 
lar. To  sell  at  home  was  certain  loss;  for  the  market  was 
so  overstocked  that  the  price  would  scarcely  have  met  the 
cost  of  purchase,  transportation,  and  the  duty.  To  sell  to  a 
fellow-merchant  for  exportation  would  be  to  give  him  the 
great  profits  of  the  foreign  market  and  receive  in  return 
such  prices  as  he  saw  fit  to  pay.  Many,  thinking  that  ruin 
at  home  was  far  more  certain  than  ruin  at  sea,  grew  bold 
and  shipped  their  goods  in  the  old  way.  Most  of  these 
shipments  went  safely  to  port,  but  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  dollars'  worth  were  seized  by  English  cruisers  and  con- 
demned by  the  English  courts.  Fifty  ships  were  known 
to  have  been  carried  into  the  ports  of  England.  As  many 


228  FREE  TEADE  AND  SAILOKS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvm. 

more  were  believed  to  have  been  libelled  in  the  West  In- 
dies.* 

First  to  complain  of  these  depredations  were  the  insurance 
companies  in  the  great  towns.  Their  complaints  were  ad- 
dressed to  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  set  forth  losses  of  two 
kinds:  those  resulting  from  captures  made  in  the  Spanish 
main  by  pirates  sailing  under  the  forged  commissions  of  France 
and  Spain,  and  those  resulting  from  capture  in  the  English 
Channel  by  English  cruisers  acting  under  the  new  principle 
/  laid  down  by  the  English  Courts  of  Admiralty.  The  story  of 
the  Channel  captures  was  the  old  story  of  seizure  and  con- 
demnation ;  but  the  narratives  of  capture  by  the  pirates  were 
invariably  narratives  of  outrage,  cruelty,  and  plunder.  For 
a  time  these  marauders  kept  close  to  the  Cuban  shores ;  but, 
protected  and  encouraged  by  the  Spanish  authorities,  they 
grew  bold  and  soon  lay  in  wait  for  American  merchantmen 
off  the  coast  of  Carolina,  and  finally  off  the  Charleston  bar. 
Sallying  forth  from  Baracoa,  from  Tobago,  from  St.  Jago  de 
Cuba,  they  would  make  all  speed  for  the  path  of  neutral  com- 
merce, and  the  moment  a  neutral  sail  appeared  bear  down,  and, 
with  matches  burning  and  every  gun  unhoused,  demand  an 
instant  surrender,  which  was  never  refused.  Sometimes  the 
ship  would  be  plundered  and  burned.  Sometimes  she  would  be 
carried  to  a  Spanish  port  and  sold.  The  "cargo  was  always 
parted  among  the  pirates.  The  captain  and  crew  were  always 
maltreated  and  abused.  If  land  were  not  more  than  two 
days  distant,  they  would  be  driven  naked  into  the  long-boat, 
given  a  few  biscuits  and  a  bottle  of  rum,  and  left  to  shift 
for  themselves.  When  land  was  far  away  they  would  be 
taken  to  the  nearest  island,  stripped  stark  naked,  and  put  on 
shore.  Once  the  pirates,  armed  with  cutlasses,  clubs,  and 
knives,  drew  up  in  two  lines  on  the  deck  of  their  ship  and 
made  their  wretched  captives  run  the  gantlet  in  true  savage 
style. 

All  through  the  autumn  and  early  winter  the  merchants 
had  been  discussing  in  the  coffee-houses  and  on  the  exchanges 

*  Monroe  to  the  Secretary  of  Foreign  Affairs   of  Great  Britain,  September 
25,  1805. 


1805.  EXCITEMENT  OVER  THE  ESSEX.  229 

the  grave  question  what  to  do.  The  general  sentiment  was  *7 
that  an  appeal  should  be  made  to  Government,  and  made  at  / 
once.  No  sooner,  therefore,  had  Congress  met  than  the  mer- 
chants of  New  York  led  the  way  with  a  long  memorial.  Every 
great  shipping  town  along  the  coast  followed,  and  in  six  weeks 
strong  appeals  came  up  from  Newburyport,  from  Salem,  from 
Boston  and  New  Haven,  from  Philadelphia,  from  Baltimore, 
and  from  Norfolk  and  Petersburg  in  Virginia.  The  mer- 
chants of  Charleston  joined  with  the  insurance  company  of 
South  Carolina  and  addressed  the  Secretary  of  State.  The 
people  of  Norfolk  and  Portsmouth,  irrespective  of  business, 
trade,  or  occupation,  met  and  adopted  a  set  of  resolutions 
which  they  sent  direct  to  the  House  of  Representatives.  All 
dwelt  on  the  ruinous  consequences  of  the  new  principles 
adopted  by  the  admiralty  courts.  All  repelled  with  indigna- 
tion the  imputation  of  fraud  laid  by  Great  Britain  on  the 
colonial  trade  of  the  United  States.  All  condemned  and  com- 
plained of  the  paper  blockades,  the  impressments  of  sailors, 
the  insolence  with  which  the  belligerents  selected  and  adopted 
such  maritime  laws  as  best  suited  their  own  interests.  But  a 
few  used  language  that  had  a  strong  martial  sound.  The 
Salem  memorial  declared  that  the  men  of  that  town  loved 
peace,  yet  would  not  shrink  from  war.  That,  if  an  appeal  to 
arms  was  the  last  resort,  they  would  share  the  common  danger 
and  the  common  cost.  The  New  Haven  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce reminded  Congress  that  peace  could  be  bought  at  too 
high  a  price.  The  Norfolk  and  Portsmouth  meeting  expressed 
a  hope  that  our  rights  would  be  asserted  and  our  injuries  re- 
dressed, and  pledged  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  all  present  in 
support  of  the  honor  and  independence  of  the  nation.  From 
Petersburg  came  the  assurance  that  whatever  burdens  it  might 
be  necessary  to  impose,  whatever  force  it  might  be  necessary 
to  use  in  the  prosecution  of  a  just  national  redress,  the  citizens 
of  that  town  would  contribute  their  full  quota  of  the  one  and 
bear  their  full  share  of  the  other.  Each  address  when  read 
was  sent  to  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  State  of  the 
Union,  to  be  followed  as  the  weeks  passed  on  by  a  long  series 
of  resolutions  concerning  our  neutral  commerce. 

First  went  so  much  of  the  annual  message  as  related  to  the 


230  FREE  TRADE   AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvin. 

shameful  conduct  of  the  belligerent  powers.  At  the  opening 
of  the  session  this  had  been  referred  to  the  Committee  of 
Ways  and  Means,  of  which  John  Randolph  was  chairman, 
with  instructions  to  find  out  in  what  way  our  neutral  rights 
had  been  violated,  to  what  extent  they  had  been  violated, 
and  what  legislative  action  was  necessary  to  defend  them. 
But  the  committee  did  nothing.  December  passed,  the  new 
year  came  in,  and  January  all  but  ended  without  so  much 
as  a  report  of  progress.  Then  on  the  twenty-ninth  of  the 
month  the  House  discharged  the  Committee  of  Ways  and 
Means  and  sent  the  matter  to  the  Committee  of  the  Whole 
on  the  State  of  the  Union.  Next  went  the  non-importation 
resolution  of  Andrew  Gregg,  providing  that,  in  consequence 
of  Great  Britain's  impressing  our  sailors,  seizing  our  ships, 
proscribing  our  trade,  and  steadily  refusing  to  listen  to  our 
remonstrances,  a  day  be  named  after  which  no  goods,  no  wares, 
no  merchandise  grown  or  made  in  England  or  any  English 
colony  or  English  dependency,  should  be  imported  into  the 
United  States.  Then  followed  the  resolution  of  Nicholson, 
designed  to  stop  the  importation  of  everything  made  of  tin ; 
of  everything  made  of  brass ;  of  everything  made  chiefly  of 
hemp  or  flax ;  of  everything  of  which  silk  formed  the  greater 
part ;  of  woollen  cloth  above  a  certain  price ;  of  woollen  ho- 
siery of  every  kind ;  of  clothing  ready  made ;  of  window 
glass  and  paper  cards,  pictures,  prints,  porter,  ale,  and  beer ; 
the  resolutions  of  Joseph  Clay,  that  no  foreign-owned  ship 
should  carry  on  any  trade  whatever  between  the  United  States 
and  the  colonies  of  any  European  power  unless  that  power 
suffered  the  ships  of  the  United  States  to  enjoy  the  same  as 
well  in  time  of  war  as  in  time  of  peace ;  the  resolution  of 
Crowninshield,  that  no  vessel  whatever  should  trade  between 
the  United  States  and  the  West  Indies  unless  American  bot- 
toms were  at  all  times  free  to  bring  to  the  Indies  the  goods, 
wares,  and  merchandise  of  the  United  States,  and  to  carry 
back  to  the  States  the  goods,  wares,  and  merchandise  of  the 
West  Indies ;  and  the  resolution  of  James  Sloan,  that  unless 
England  should,  before  a  certain  day,  set  free  all  impressed 
American  sailors,  discharge  all  American  ships  held  contrary 
to  the  law  of  nations,  and  make  good  all  losses  sustained  by 


1806.  GKEGG'S  RESOLUTION.  231 

the  decisions  of  her  prize  courts,  trade  should  cease  and  not  be 
renewed  till  all  these  things  had  been  accomplished. 

But,  in  March,  when  the  House  went  into  the  Committee 
of  the  Whole  on  the  State  of  the  Union,  none  save  that 
offered  by  Mr.  Gregg  and  that  offered  by  Mr.  Nicholson 
were  seriously  considered.  The  resolution  of  Gregg  for  a 
total  non-importation  of  British  goods  and  wares  expressed 
the  sentiments  of  the  merchants  and  ship-owners  of  the  East- 
ern and  Middle  States.  The  resolution  of  Nicholson  for  a 
partial  non-importation  of  British  goods  expressed  the  senti- 
ments of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  of  the  greater  part  of 
the  South,  of  the  men  who  raised  cotton  and  tobacco,  flaxseed 
and  rice ;  who  found  a  market  in  London,  and  who  depended 
on  London  alone  for  every  article  they  used  :  for  the  brooms 
with  which  their  floors  were  swept,  for  the  cotton  in  which 
their  slaves  were  dressed,  for  the  furniture  in  their  houses,  for 
their  saddles,  their  books,  and  in  many  cases  for  the  coats  upon 
their  backs  and  the  boots  on  their  feet.  The  first  to  be  de- 
bated was  that  of  Gregg.  Those  who  opposed  it  did  so  on 
the  ground  that  it  would  cut  down  the  revenue,  increase  tax- 
ation, inflict  a  deep  and  fatal  wound  on  agriculture,  provoke 
Great  Britain  to  retaliation,  and  sacrifice  the  interests  of  the 
people  of  the  South  by  taking  from  them  the  only  market  for 
their  staple  commodities,  and  by  depriving  them  of  the  neces- 
saries of  life,  without  which  they  could  not  possibly  subsist. 
There  is,  said  they,  now  lying  on  the  table  of  the  House  a 
report  made  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  From  that 
report  it  appears  that  we  imported  from  Great  Britain  last 
year  thirty-five  million  nine  hundred  and  seventy  thousand 
dollars'  worth  of  goods ;  that  the  revenue  derived  from  them 
was  five  millions  and  a  half,  while  the  revenue  derived  from 
our  commerce  with  all  the  world  besides  was  but  a  trifle  over 
six  millions  of  dollars.  Leaving  out  of  consideration  the  Medi- 
terranean Fund,  which  is  pledged  to  a  special  purpose,  the 
permanent  income  of  the  United  States  is,  in  round  numbers, 
eleven  millions  five  hundred  thousand  dollars.  But  the  perma- 
nent outgo  is  eleven  millions  ;  eight  millions  for  the  principal 
and  interest  of  the  public  debt  and  three  millions  for  the  army, 
the  navy,  and  the  civil  list.  Adopt  this  resolution  then,  and 


232  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvm. 

what  happens  ?  Not  a  dollar's  worth  of  the  thirty-five  millions 
of  British  goods  is  entered  at  your  Custorn-House.  Not  a  cent 
of  the  five  and  a  half  millions  revenue  is  collected,  and,  in 
the  course  of  a  whole  year,  not  enough  money  comes  into  the 
Treasury  to  pay  the  interest  and  make  the  required  reduction 
in  the  principal  of  the  debt.  The  surplus  will  disappear,  and 
in  its  place  will  be  a  deficit  of  nearly  six  millions  of  dollars. 
This  will  have  to  be  made  up.  And  how  can  it  be  made  up  but 
by  laying  taxes  on  land,  on  liquor,  on  tobacco,  on  carriages,  on 
paper  and  parchment — by,  in  short,  restoring  to  the  Statute 
Books  that  odious  Federal  system  of  internal  taxation  which 
it  is  the  glory  of  the  Republican  party  to  have  swept  away  ? 
Is  the  gain  worth  the  cost  ?  National  honor,  it  is  true,  can 
not  be  estimated  in  dollars  and  cents.  In  war,  millions  must 
be  expended  to  protect  thousands.  But  we  are  told  this  is  not 
a  war  measure.  This  is  a  commercial  regulation,  intended  to 
protect  our  seamen  and  our  carrying  trade.  It  ought,  there- 
fore, to  be  treated  in  a  commercial  spirit,  and  to  destroy  a 
revenue  of  five  millions  in  order  to  protect  a  carrying  trade 
which  yields  but  eight  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  is,  to  say 
the  least,  extremely  foolish. 

The  folly  of  this  non-importation  scheme,  they  continued, 
is  yet  more  signally  displayed  when  we  consider  the  effect  it 
will  have  on  our  exports,  our  agriculture,  our  foreign  markets. 
During  the  year  just  gone  the  domestic  produce  sent  to  Great 
Britain  and  her  dependencies  was  valued  at  twenty  millions. 
Nine  millions  nine  hundred  thousand  went  from  States  south 
of  the  Potomac  ;  and  of  these  nine  millions,  eight  millions 
eight  hundred  thousand  was  in  cotton  and  tobacco  alone.  The 
tobacco  remains  abroad,  but  no  small  part  of  the  cotton  comes 
back,  for  from  England  we  import  all  the  cotton  goods  we  use, 
save  the  white  and  stained  cloth  from  the  East  Indies.  Adopt 
this  resolution,  pass  a  non-importation  act,  stop  the  bringing 
in  of  British  goods,  and  what  do  you  do  ?  You  do  not  indeed 
prevent  raw  cotton  from  going  to  Liverpool,  but  you  prevent 
manufactured  cotton  from  coming  to  Charleston,  to  Savannah, 
to  New  York ;  you  break  down  the  market  and  you  ruin  every 
planter  on  whose  land  the  cotton  grows,  for  nothing  can  be 
more  clear  than  that  the  moment  you  cease  to  buy  the  fabrics 


1806.  DEBATE  ON  NON-IMPORTATION.  £33 

of  Great  Britain  she  must  of  necessity  cease  to  buy  of  us  the 
raw  material  out  of  which  the  fabrics  are  made. 

Look  again  at  the  effect  of  non-importation  on  the  East- 
ern and  Middle  States.  From  them  go  out  each  year  to  the 
British  West  Indies  some  six  million  dollars'  worth  of  lumber, 
flour,  corn-meal,  and  fish.  For  this  comes  back  one  and  a  half 
million  in  bills  of  exchange,  and  four  and  a  half  millions  in 
sugar,  rum,  and  coffee.  Suppose  now  that  the  importation  of 
British  goods  is  stopped.  Suppose  that  we  will  no  longer  take 
four  and  a  half  millions  in  sugar,  coffee,  and  rum,  grown  and 
made  in  the  islands.  Can  the  "West  Indian  planter  pay  for 
our  flour  and  lumber  as  great  a  price  as  he  now  pays  for  them  ? 
He  certainly  can  not,  and  the  result,  the  inevitable  result,  will 
be  a  fall  in  the  value  of  all  those  products  grown  on  the  farms 
of  the  Middle  States  and  of  New  England.  Thus  will  the 
farmer  in  the  North  and  the  planter  in  the  South  be  loaded 
with  two  intolerable  burdens.  To  make  good  the  five  millions 
of  revenue  thrown  away  there  will  be  taxes  on  his  land,  on 
his  cattle,  on  his  house,  on  everything  that  is  his.  And  at  the 
very  time  his  taxes  are  most  heavy,  his  flour,  meal,  the  cotton 
and  tobacco,  the  pitch  and  resin  on  which  he  must  depend  for 
money  to  pay  them  will  be  shrinking  in  value,  and  perhaps 
become  unsalable  in  the  market. 

Such  are  the  evils  we  are  invited  to  inflict  deliberately, 
wantonly,  needlessly  on  ourselves.  But  there  will  be  other 
evils  not  of  our  own  inflicting.  Great  Britain  will  retaliate, 
and  retaliation  will  drive  us  into  war.  "We  are  told  that  this 
is  impossible  ;  that  we  are  the  great  consumers  of  her  manu- 
factures ;  and  that  on  the  first  attempt  to  countervail  our  re- 
strictions a  remonstrance  will  come  up  from  the  manufacturers 
and  traders  of  London,  of  Bristol,  of  Lancaster,  of  Liverpool, 
of  Hull,  of  Glasgow,  which  even  the  present  ministry,  strong 
as  it  is,  must  heed.  In  proof  of  this,  an  appeal  has  been 
made  to  the  history  of  the  Revolution,  and  we  are  bidden  to 
remember  the  outcry  which  thirty  years  ago  was  made  in  Eng- 
land by  the  non-importation  agreement  of  the  colonies.  The 
case  is  indeed  a  case  in  point,  and  a  most  unfortunate  one  for 
those  who  appeal  to  it.  The  trader  and  manufacturer  did  in- 
deed cry  out  most  lustily,  and  piled  the  table  of  the  Commons 


234  FREE  TRADE  AND   SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvm. 

high  with  petitions  and  remonstrances  against  the  prosecution 
of  the  war.  But  did  the  King  yield  ?  Did  the  war  stop  ?  Nay, 
in  spite  of  a  weak  administration,  in  spite  of  a  spirited  and 
powerful  opposition,  in  spite  of  the  prayers  of  the  merchant 
and  the  detestation  of  the  people,  the  war  went  on  for  seven 
years.  Will  the  petitions  of  the  spinners  and  weavers,  the  iron- 
founders  and  knife-grinders,  be  more  effective  in  1806  than 
they  were  in  1776  ?  Then  Great  Britain  was  fighting  to  put 
down  a  rebellion  in  her  colonies.  To-day  she  is  fighting  for 
her  existence  as  a  nation.  The  commercial  principle  for  which 
she  is  contending  is  absolutely  necessary  to  her  in  the  waging 
of  her  European  war.  The  one  vulnerable  point  of  her  enemy 
is  the  commerce  of  neutrals  between  that  enemy  and  his  pos- 
sessions. War  with  us  would  be  as  nothing  to  a  surrender  of 
the  principle  she  has  asserted.  To  her  the  cost  of  such  a  war 
would  not  be  one  extra  penny.  Her  navy  is  enormous.  Her 
ships  are  manned,  armed  and  on  the  sea,  without  a  single 
enemy  to  oppose  them.  To  us  the  cost  would  be  terrible  to 
think  of.  Our  commerce  would  enrich  her  sailors  and  her 
officers.  Our  revenue  would  be  cut  off  at  the  roots,  our 
credit  would  be  sunk,  and  our  debt  increased  beyond  all  calcu- 
lation. Reject  this  resolution,  and  we  shall  continue  to  be 
what  Americans  ought  to  be — happy  and  contented,  without 
internal  taxes  and  without  foreign  war.  Accept  it,  and  we 
shall  soon  become  what  Englishmen  are — warlike  and  glorious, 
with  plenty  of  honor  and  dignity,  which  are  but  milder  terms 
for  taxes  and  blood. 

Your  arguments,  said  the  men  who  supported  the  resolu- 
tion to  those  who  opposed  the  resolution,  are  of  two  kinds : 
appeals  to  our  hopes,  and  appeals  to  our  fears.  Appeals  to  our 
hopes  that,  by  negotiation,  we  may  yet  persuade  Great  Britain 
to  abandon  that  injurious  conduct  toward  us  which  it  is  her 
interest  to  follow,  and  on  which  she  has  coolly,  deliberately, 
and  systematically  entered.  Appeals  to  our  fears  that  if  we 
adopt  non-intercourse  we  shall  hurt  ourselves  greatly,  and 
Great  Britain  not  at  all.  In  one  breath  you  denounce  the 
measure  as  too  weak  to  accomplish  anything.  In  the  next 
you  describe  it  as  so  strong,  so  vindictive,  that  it  must  lead 
straight  to  war.  To  hope  for  better  treatment  at  the  hands 


1806.  DEBATE   ON   NON-IMPORTATION".  235 

of  Great  Britain  is  idle,  for  the  President  has  told  us  that  he 
has  negotiated,  and  negotiated  in  vain.  To  believe  that  war 
and  commercial  ruin  wait  upon  the  adoption  of  non-inter- 
course is  equally  idle,  for  Great  Britain  is  by  no  means  dis- 
posed to  add  to  the  number  of  her  enemies,  and  our  revenue 
and  our  markets  will  not  be  lost.  She  well  knows  that  in  the 
event  of  war,  Canada  and  Nova  Scotia,  and  some  of  her  West 
India  islands,  will  be  taken  from  her.  She  well  knows,  too, 
that  her  subjects  own  sixteen  millions  of  our  public  debt,  and 
eight  millions  of  Louisiana  stock,  and  three  millions  of  bank 
stock,  and  ten  millions  of  private  debts.  "Will  she,  then,  put 
to  hazard  her  provinces  and  her  property  ?  True  it  is  that  our 
revenue  will  be  slightly  cut  down.  We  shall  have  nine  mill- 
ions instead  of  eleven  and  a  half  millions  a  year,  and  our  public 
debt  will  be  paid  not  in  1818,  but  in  1826.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  will  have  assumed  a  manly  and  dignified  spirit ;  we 
will  have  armed  our  Government  with  sufficient  means  to  en- 
force our  rights,  and  will  command  the  respect  of  all  nations. 

When  the  debate  had  gone  on  for  more  than  a  week  it 
was  admitted  on  every  hand  that  the  resolution  of  Gregg 
was  far  too  strong  ;  that  the  arguments  made  by  the  opposers 
of  the  scheme  were  much  sounder  than  the  arguments  made 
by  the  supporters,  and  that  a  total  non-importation  of  British 
goods  would  never  do.  When,  therefore,  the  House  had  for 
the  eighth  time  gone  into  the  Committee  of  the  Whole,  and  the 
motion  was  made  to  take  up  the  resolution  of  Gregg,  it  was  de- 
cided by  a  vote  of  seventy  to  forty-seven  not  to  do  so,  and,  with- 
out a  division,  that  of  Nicholson  was  taken  up  instead.  From 
that  moment  the  result  was  never  in  doubt.  Nevertheless,  four 
days  were  spent  in  further  debate  before  the  committee  re- 
ported the  resolution  of  the  House,  before  the  House  accepted 
the  report,  and  before  a  select  committee  of  five  was  chosen  to 
frame  a  bill  in  accordance  with  the  principles  of  Nicholson's 
resolution.  The  Committee  of  the  Whole  were  then  discharged 
from  further  consideration  of  the  motions  of  Gregg  and 
Sloane,  which  were  promptly  withdrawn  by  their  movers.* 

*  The  pamphlets  on  the  commercial  troubles  of  1806  that  are  worth  reading 
are  these :  War  in  Disguise ;  or,  The  Frauds  oil  the  Neutral  Flags.    London,  1805. 


236  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvm. 

When  the  bill  passed  the  Senate  it  forbade  the  importa- 
tion, directly  or  indirectly,  from  Great  Britain  and  her  depend- 
encies, after  November  fifteenth,  1806,  of  a  long  list  of  goods, 
wares,  and  merchandise,  fixed  the  penalties  that  should  be 
visited  on  breakers  of  the  law,  gave  to  collectors  of  customs 
power  to  search  ships,  vessels,  dwelling-houses,  shops,  and 
buildings  for  prohibited  goods,  and  prescribed  a  new  form 
of  oath  to  be  taken  by  masters  of  vessels,  importers,  agents, 
and  consigners.  In  the  Senate  but  little  opposition  was  met 
with  till  the  Vice-President  rose  and  put  the  question,  "  Shall 
this  bill  pass  ? "  Then  a  senator  moved  to  put  off  considera- 
tion till  the  first  Monday  in  November.  But,  by  a  vote  of 
nineteen  to  nine,  this  was  refused,  and  by  precisely  the  same 
vote  the  bill  passed.  April  eighteenth  the  President  approved, 
and  one  week  later  the  folly  of  expecting  any  change  in  the 
behavior  of  Great  Britain  was  finely  illustrated. 

Toward  five  o'clock  on  the  evening  of  April  twenty-fifth 
the  coasting-sloop  Richard,  from  Brandywine,  was  approaching 
New  York.  Suddenly,  when  scarcely  two  miles  from  the  Sandy 
Hook  light  and  not  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  beach,  two 
shots  came  screaming  toward  her ;  one  struck  the  water  forty 
yards  from  the  bow ;  the  other  passed  directly  over  her.  The 

New  York,  1806.  War  without  Disguise;  or,  The  Frauds  of  Neutral  Commerce 
a  Justification  of  Belligerent  Captures ;  with  Observations  on  the  Answer  to  War 
in  Disguise  and  Mr.  Madison's  Examination.  London,  1806.  "  Printed  in  Amer- 
ica," 1807.  An  Examination  of  the  British  Doctrine  which  subjects  to  Capture  a 
Neutral  Trade  not  open  in  Time  of  Peace.  1805.  An  Answer  to  War  in  Dis- 
guise ;  or,  Remarks  upon  the  New  Doctrine  of  England  concerning  Neutral  Trade. 
New  York,  February,  1806.  An  Inquiry  into  the  Present  State  of  the  Foreign 
Relations  of  the  Union  as  affected  by  the  Late  Measures  of  Administration. 
Philadelphia,  1806.  The  Speech  of  the  Hon.  J.  Randolph,  Representative  from 
the  State  of  Virginia  in  the  General  Congress  of  America,  on  a  Motion  for  the 
Non-importation  of  British  Merchandise  pending  the  Present  Dispute  between 
Great  Britain  and  America.  With  an  Introduction  by  the  Author  of  War  in  Dis- 
guise. New  York  and  London,  1806.  Thoughts  on  the  Subject  of  Naval  Power 
in  the  United  States  of  America,  and  on  Certain  Means  of  Encouraging  and  Pro- 
tecting their  Commerce  and  Manufactures.  Philadelphia,  1806.  Oil  without 
Vinegar  and  Dignity  without  Pride;  or,  British,  American,  and  West  Indian  In- 
terests considered.  By  Macall  Medford,  Esq.  London,  1807.  Memorial  of  the 
Merchant  Traders  of  the  City  of  Baltimore  on  the  Violation  of  our  Neutral  Rights. 
1806.  The  Memorial  of  the  Merchants  and  Traders  of  the  City  of  Philadelphia. 
Philadelphia,  1806. 


1806.  MURDER  OF  PIERCE.  237 

Richard  was  quickly  rounded ;  but  just  at  that  moment  a  third 
ball,  badly  aimed,  struck  the  taffrail  and  quarter-rail,  and  car- 
ried off  the  head  of  John  Pierce,  the  helmsman.  The  shots 
came  from  the  Leander,  a  British  war  ship,  that  had  long  lain 
in  the  offing,  stopping  coasters,  searching  merchantmen,  seiz- 
ing ships,  and  impressing  citizens  of  the  United  States.  On 
some  of  his  captures  the  captain  of  the  Leander  put  prize 
crews  and  sent  them  to  Halifax.  But  the  Richard  made  her 
escape  and,  toward  morning,  reached  New  York. 

As  the  news  spread  through  the  city  the  whole  population 
was  thrown  into  commotion.  The  body  of  the  murdered  man 
was  taken  from  the  ship  and  exposed  to  view  in  Burling 
Slip,  at  the  Tontine  Coifee-House,  and  then  laid  in  state  in  the 
City  Hall.  Thousands  viewed  it,  and  of  these,  scarce  one  but 
went  away  cursing  England  and  the  administration,  and  vowing 
vengeance  which  was  no  idle  threat.  Some  set  off  instantly  in 
a  pilot  boat  to  bring  back  the  sloop  Aurora  and  the  schooner 
Nimrod,  lately  seized  by  the  Leander  and  sent  to  Halifax. 
Others  went  to  stop  the  provisions  destined  for  the  man-of- 
war.  The  purser  of  the  Leander  had  come  up  to  town  the 
day  before  the  murder  and  bought  a  great  quantity  of  meat 
and  food  for  his  ship.  Two  boats  loaded  with  them  were 
found  at  the  wharf  and  seized.  Three  more  had  gone  down 
the  bay,  but  swift-sailing  vessels  put  after  them,  overhauled 
them  at  Sandy  Hook,  and  brought  them  back  to  town,  where 
the  food,  put  into  ten  carts,  was  dragged  by  shouting  crowds 
to  the  almshouses. 

Meanwhile  the  Common  Council  met,  denounced  the  mur- 
der and  the  daring  aggression  on  national  right,  voted  a  pub- 
lic funeral,  and  asked  the  captains  of  ships  in  the  harbor  to 
lower  their  flags  to  half-mast,  and  the  sextons  of  the  churches 
to  toll  the  bells.  The  people  assembled  and  resolved  to  attend 
the  funeral  in  a  body.  The  Tammany  Society  did  likewise. 
The  Grand  Sachem  impressed  upon  his  brothers  that  the  die  was 
cast,  that  the  disturbers  of  the  peace  of  the  world  had  spilled 
the  blood  of  their  countryman,  that  the  national  flag  should 
therefore  be  hoisted  to  half-mast  on  the  Great  Wigwam,  and 
that  the  members  of  Tammany  should,  with  black  bands  on 
their  hats  and  black  crape  edged  with  red  on  their  arms,  pay 


238  FREE  TKADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.     CHAP.  xvin. 

respect  to  the  shade  of  the  murdered  Pierce.  Their  toma- 
hawks, their  bows,  their  arrows,  they  might  leave  at  home, 
but  they  should  have  their  arrows  well  sharpened  and  their 
bows  well  strung,  for  the  black  belt  of  wampum  stained  with 
American  blood  was  before  their  eyes  in  the  grand  council 
chamber  of  the  nation.  On  the  day  of  the  funeral  the  body, 
surrounded  by  the  clergy,  the  captains  and  crews  of  all  the 
ships  in  the  harbor,  the  Mayor,  the  Common  Council,  and  the 
citizens,  was  borne  along  "Wall  Street,  Pearl  Street,  Whitehall 
Street,  to  Broadway,  and  deposited  in  the  graveyard  of  St. 
Paul's  church. 

The  excitement  called  out  by  this  incident  did  not  stop  at 
the  grave.  The  spring  elections  were  near  at  hand,  and  each 
party  found  in  the  murder  of  Pierce  material  for  campaign 
purposes.  The  Federalists  gathered  some  idle  sailors  together 
in  Hardy's  Tavern,  plied  them  with  grog,  and  had  a  set  of 
resolutions  passed  which  were  hailed  as  the  "  sentiments  of  the 
American  sailor."  One  resolution  declared  that  the  money 
spent  on  the  wild  lands  of  Louisiana  would  have  been  much 
better  used  in  building  seventy-four-gun  ships.  Another  at- 
tributed to  the  cowardice  of  Government  the  insults  heaped 
on  American  seamen.  The  last  asserted  that  the  President 
would  be  much  better  employed  in  maintaining  our  rights  and 
protecting  our  flag  than  in  cutting  up  animals  and  stuffing  the 
skins  of  dead  raccoons.  In  the  heat  of  party  conflict  the  old 
Federal  sentiment  of  1T98  was  reversed,  and  "  millions  for  trib- 
ute, not  a  cent  for  defence,"  became  the  derisive  toast  of  the 
hour.  Why,  the  Federal  writers  asked,  why  are  our  lives  and 
our  property  left  unprotected  by  the  Government  ?  Not  for 
lack  of  money,  for  the  revenue  is  immense,  and  we  pay  an  im- 
mense share  of  it.  On  the  day  when  Mr.  Jefferson  came  to 
the  presidency  there  were  delivered  to  his  keeping  an  over- 
flowing Treasury,  a  flourishing  navy,  a  national  honor  till  then 
maintained,  and  a  name  respected  by  all  nations.  Where  now 
is  our  navy  ?  Rotting  at  the  wharves,  or  sold  to  buy  gun-boats  ? 
Where  now  is  our  treasure  ?  Ingloriously  paid  to  a  French 
despot  by  way  of  tribute.  Where  is  our  national  honor? 
Gone.  Forsaken  at  Tripoli.  Abandoned  on  the  Mississippi. 
We  have  petitioned  Congress  for  protection,  and  our  petition 


1806.  PORTS  SHUT  TO  THE  LEANDER.  239 

has  been  made  the  subject  of  scoffs  and  jeers  by  the  Lords  of 
Virginia.  We  have  petitioned  the  Legislature  of  our  own  State, 
and  Mr.  Clinton,  in  derision,  brought  in  his  resolution  to  arm 
the  North  river  market  boats.  To  the  administration  and  the 
party  of  the  administration,  not  to  us,  is  to  be  attributed  this 
national  disgrace,  this  wanton  murder  of  an  American  citizen. 

To  this  charge  the  Kepublicans  replied  by  declaring  that 
the  murder  of  Pierce,  and  every  other  act  of  British  insolence, 
was  the  necessary  consequence  of  the  tameness  and  indiffer- 
ence of  three  Federal  administrations ;  by  asserting  that  had 
not  our  national  rights  been  given  up  by  Jay's  treaty,  had 
not  the  British  been  tamely  suffered  to  seize  our  produce 
bound  to  France,  had  not  John  Adams  basely  suffered  British 
ships  to  come  to  our  shores  and  take  away  men  claiming  our 
protection,  Pierce  would  not  have  died;  by  reminding  the 
people  how,  in  time  past,  when  British  war  ships  came  to  our 
ports,  impressed  our  sailors,  insulted  our  country,  and  violated 
our  laws,  the  officers  had  been  caressed  and  feasted  by  the 
Federalists.  How,  when  the  French  took  some  ships  insured 
in  the  Marine  Insurance  Company,  of  New  York,  the  presi- 
dent of  the  company,  a  Federalist  indeed,  besought  the  British 
Consul  to  ask  that  British  ships  of  war  might  be  stationed  off 
the  coast ;  how  the  Consul  made  the  request,  how  the  Leander 
was  sent  to  cruise  off  the  Hook,  and  how  she  there  impressed 
sailors,  defied  the  law,  and  resisted  the  attempt  of  a  marshal 
to  serve  a  process. 

Beyond  the  limits  of  New  York  the  feeling  excited  by 
the  murder  of  Pierce  was  less  bitter.  At  "Washington,  on  the 
third  of  May,  Jefferson  put  forth  a  proclamation.  He  called 
for  the  arrest  of  Whitby.  He  commanded  the  Leander,  the 
Cambrian,  and  the  Driver  to  leave  the  ports  of  the  United 
States.  Should  they  fail  to  go,  or,  going,  should  they  come 
back,  he  prohibited  the  people  to  repair  them,  or  pilot  them, 
or  supply  them  with  food,  and  forbade  the  officers,  Henry 
"Whitby,  John  Nairne,  and  Slingsby  Simpson,  ever  again  to 
enter  the  waters  of  the  United  States. 

At  Philadelphia,  on  the  twelfth  of  May,  the  day  being  the 
anniversary  of  the  Society  of  St.  Tammany,  the  council  fires 
were  lighted  and  a  set  of  resolutions  framed  in  the  Great 


240  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvm. 

Wigwam,  at  the  Green  Tree  Inn.  The  subject  was  the  kill- 
ing of  Pierce,  and  one  of  them  ordered  that  a  painting  repre- 
senting the  murder  should  be  secured  and  hung  up  in  the 
Wigwam,  to  keep  in  memory  the  fact  that  he  fell  by  one  of 
the  acts  of  those  tyrants  of  whose  bloody  spirit  sad  memorials 
were  to  be  found  in  every  country  and  in  every  clime.  On 
the  fourth  of  July  the  revellers  in  each  great  town  and  city 
drank  at  least  one  toast  to  the  memory  of  the  man  they  affect- 
ed to  consider  as  the  latest  martyr  to  liberty.  At  Charles- 
ton the  ship  captains  passed  resolutions  of  sympathy  and  de- 
nunciation. Their  denunciations  of  the  Government  were 
richly  deserved,  but  ought  not  to  have  been  limited  to  the 
^_party  then  in  control,  for  never,  since  the  country  had  presi- 
fdents,  had  the  sailor  been  protected  in  his  rights.  Hardly 
L  was  the  Constitution  a  year  old  when  England  began  the  prac- 
tice of  dragging  American  citizens  from  the  decks  of  Ameri- 
can ships,  and  during  sixteen  years  had  carried  it  on  in  every 
^portion  of  the  civilized  world  with  impunity.  Early  in  1790, 
Spain  having  seized  a  couple  of  British  vessels  in  Nootka 
Sound,  England  made  ready  for  a  naval  war,  and  on  the  night 
of  May  fourth  a  hot  press  went  on  along  the  wharves  and  in 
the  sailors'  beer  cellars  of  London.  Large  numbers  of  Ameri- 
can seamen  were  captured,  and  the  captains  of  the  ships  from 
which  the  press-gang  took  them  turned  to  Gouverneur  Mor- 
ris for  help.  Morris  was  then  in  London  as  an  unaccredited 
jigent  for  the  United  States.  He  had  been  requested  by  Wash- 
ington to  inquire  into  the  disposition  of  the  English  ministry 
to  make  a  treaty  of  commerce  and  send  a  minister  to  Philadel- 
phia, and  gladly  undertook  to  present  this  new  grievance  of 
his  countrymen.  Interviews  were  held  with  the  Duke  of 
Leeds  and  with  Pitt,  in  the  course  of  which  both  disclaimed 
any  wish  on  the  part  of  England  to  molest  American  sailors, 
and  declared  that  the  whole  trouble  arose  from  the  difficulty 
of  distinguishing  the  subjects  of  his  Majesty  from  the  citizens 
of  the  United  States.  Morris  then  asked  if  certificates  of 
citizenship  issued  by  the  admiralty  courts  would  be  a  sufficient 
protection,  and  was  answered  that  they  would.*  But  Wash- 

*  Morris  to  Jefferson,  May  27,  1790. 


1792-'96.  IMPRESSMENT.  241 

ington  would  hear  nothing  of  certificates,  and  when  Thomas  v  i 
Pinkney  went  out  as  Minister  of  the  United  States,  at  London, 
he  was  especially  instructed  on  the  matter.    The  mode  suggest- 
ed by  Morris,  he  was  told,  was  "  entirely  rejected."     Sailors 
would  never  be  able  to  take  care  of  their  papers,  and  if  they 
did  not  have  them,  England  would  be  armed  with  a  legal  right 
to  impress  our  whole  marine.     He  was  to  stand  out  for  the 
simple  rule  that  American   ships  made  American  seamen. 
Should  it  be  apprehended  that  our  vessels  might  thus  become*^ 
asylums  for  the  subjects  of  Great  Britain,  the  number  of  men 
to  be  protected  might  be  limited  by  the  tonnage.     An  officer" 
or  two  might  even  be  suffered  to  go  on  board  to  count  the 
crew.     But  no  press-gang  should  ever  set  foot  on  the  deck 
till  the  master  had  refused  to  deliver  the  supernumeraries,  and 

until  an  American  consul   had  been  summoned  to  witness 

— . 

what  went  on.*  The  instruction  had  hardly  been  given  when 
two  flagrant  cases  of  impressment  were  reported  at  the  De- 
partment of  State,  f  More  remonstrances  were  made,  but 
war  with  France  followed  almost  immediately,  and  impress- 
ment began  in  earnest.  Every  effort  to  stop  it,  to  regulate  it, 
to  even  check  it,  was  of  no  avail.  In  1793  consuls  were  per- 
mitted to  protect  from  impressment  native-born  citizens  of 
the  United  States,  and  began  to  issue  certificates  of  citizen- 
ship.^; But  this  was  soon  denied  to  be  a  consular  power,  de- 
nounced as  leading  to  serious  abuses,  and  the  papers  not  re- 
spected.* In  1794  Jay  made  his  famous  treaty,  but  the  treaty"^ 
was  silent  on  the  subject  of  impressment,  and  in  1796  Con- 
gress was  forced  to  interpose,  f  The  high  ground  that  the 
flag  should  cover  the  man  was  now  abandoned,  collectors  of 
the  ports  were  instructed  to  issue  protections  to  seamen  who 
were  citizens  of  the  United  States,  keep  a  register,  and  report 
once  a  quarter.  The  President  was  authorized  to  appoint  two 
agents  to  reside  abroad,  and  bid  them  inquire  into  the  situa- 
tion of  impressed  American  sailors  and  report  to  the  Secretary 

*  Jefferson  to  Pinkney,  June  11,  1702. 

Jefferson  to  Pinkney,  October  12  and  November  6,  1*792. 

Pinkney  to  Jefferson,  March  13.  1793. 

Rufus  King  to  Pickering,  November,  1796. 
J  Act  of  May  28,  1796. 

TOL.  HI. 17 


242  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvra. 

of  State.  Under  this  act,  between  1796  and  1801  thirty-five 
thousand  nine  hundred  seamen  were  registered  by  the  col- 
lectors, and  the  release  of  nineteen  hundred  and  forty  asked 
for  by  the  agent  in  London.  In  the  West  Indies  all  manner  of 
hindrances  were  put  in  the  way  of  their  release.  The  detec- 
tion of  an  attempt  to  notify  an  American  consul  of  the  pres- 
ence of  Americans  on  board  an  English  ship  was  sure  to  be 
followed  by  a  brutal  flogging.  So  reluctant  were  the  officers 
to  free  them  when  their  presence  was  detected  that  the  Ameri- 
can agent,  Silas  Talbot,  took  out  writs  of  habeas  corpus  at 
Jamaica.  The  Vice- Admiral,  Sir  Hyde  Parker,  defeated  this 
attempt  by  commanding  his  officers  to  give  the  writs  no 


Side  by  side  with  the  evil  of  impressment,  which  so  sorely 
afflicted  the  United  States,  grew  up  the  evil  of  desertion,  which 
uite  as  sorely  afflicted  Great  Britain.  The  undisturbed  right 
enjoyed  by  Americans  of  bringing  coffee  and  sugar  from  the 
French  "West  Indies  to  Charleston,  to  Boston,  or  to  New  York, 
there  breaking  the  voyage  and  then  shipping  provisions  to 
Bordeaux  or  to  Brest,  had  thrown  into  the  hands  of  American 
merchants  the  whole  colonial  trade  of  France.  Opportunities 
for  trade  had  stimulated  ship-building.  New  ships  increased 
the  demand  for  sailors ;  the  United  States  could  not  supply 
the  demand ;  wages  rose  from  eight  to  twenty-four  dollars  a 
month,  and  British  sailors  began  to  desert  from  every  priva- 
teer and  frigate  that  entered  our  ports.  Once  safe  on  our 
shores,  an  American  name  was  assumed,  an  American  pro- 
tection purchased,  and  Jack,  thus  disguised  as  an  American 
citizen,  was  soon  on  the  deck  of  an  American  merchant- 
man on  his  way  to  San  Domingo  or  Martinique.  So  prev- 
alent did  this  become  that  an  offer  was  made  by  the  Eng- 
lish Minister  in  1798,  and  renewed  in  1800,  for  an  article 
concerning  the  return  of  deserters  to  be  added  to  the  treaty 
of  1794.  f  But,  as  the  article  did  not  sufficiently  provide 
against  the  impressment  of  American  seamen,  it  was  not  ac- 


*  Pickering  to  King,  October  8, 1797 ;  also,  Pickering  to  Silas  Talbot,  August 
16,  1797. 

•f  Robert  Listen  to  Pickering,  February  2  and  4,  1800. 


1800.  IMPRESSMENT.  243 

cepted,*  and  desertion  went  on  more  defiantly  than  ever.  At 
Norfolk  the  crew  of  a  British  vessel  quit  in  a  body  and 
shipped  for  a  cruise  on  an  American  sloop-of-war.  At  New 
York  almost  every  English  vessel  that  came  into  port  was 
forced  to  go  short-handed  away.  To  get  the  men  back  was 
impossible,  for  neither  magistrates  nor  people  would  appre- 
hend them. 

Though  she  might  not  be  able  to  recover  her  deserters  6n 
land,  Great  Britain  was  amply  able  to  do  so  on  the  sea.  As-  \ 
serting  the  principle,  once  a  subject  always  a  subject,  she 
claimed  the  services  of  every  British  sailor  wherever  and  I 
whenever  found.  Nothing  could  release  him.  If  he 
duced  naturalization  papers  from  the  country  under  whose 
flag  he  sailed,  he  was  told  that  England  did  not  admit  the 
right  of  expatriation.  If  he  claimed  to  have  voluntarily  en- 
listed in  the  service  of  a  neutral,  and  to  be  under  contract  for 
the  voyage,  he  was  told  that  such  agreements  must  give  way 
at  the  call  of  his  King.  Every  British  officer,  therefore,  who 
came  over  the  side  of  an  American  merchantman  to  search  for 
an  enemy's  goods,  mustered  the  crew  and  searched  for  British 
subjects.  At  first  an  honest  attempt  seems  to  have  been  made"" 
to  distinguish  between  the  men  of  the  two  countries.  But  the 
moment  desertions  began  to  become  numerous,  the  moment 
the  United  States  began  to  protect  and  encourage  deserters, 
that  moment  all  attempt  at  discrimination  ceased,  and  impress- 
ment grew  more  and  more  rigorous,  till  at  last  the  officer 
who  searched  an  American  ship  laughed  at  protections  and 
naturalization  papers,  differences  of  language  and  differences 
of  race,  and  took  off  with  him  such  men  as  pleased  his  fancy, 
and  cared  not  a  rush  where  they  were  born. 

In  the  course  of  the  negotiations  each  nation  lamented  the 
stand  it  was  forced  to  take,  and  expressed  the  utmost  anxiety 
to  find  a  remedy.  It  is  certainly  just,  said  the  representatives 
of  the  United  States,  that  England  should  be  protected  against 
the  loss  of  her  seamen  by  desertion — a  loss  most  serious  to  a 
nation  depending  as  she  does  on  her  maritime  strength  for 
her  safety.  But  it  is  also  just  that  the  United  States  should 

*  Message  and  Documents  sent  by  Madison  to  the  Senate,  July  6,  1812. 


244  FREE  TEADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.     OHAP.  xvin. 

be  protected  against  the  loss  of  her  seamen  by  impressment. 
The  right  to  impress  Americans,  said  the  representatives  of 
England,  has  never  been  asserted,  and  the  few  taken  are  always 
restored  on  application.  British  subjects,  not  American  citi- 
zens, are  the  men  we  seek.  It  is  true,  was  the  answer,  that 
the  right  to  impress  Americans  has  never  been  asserted.  Yet 
impressment  goes  on.  Our  citizens  are  dragged  on  board  of 
British  ships  with  evidence  of  citizenship  in  their  hands,  and 
forced  to  serve  till  such  testimonials  of  their  birth  as  England 
will  accept  can  be  obtained  from  their  homes  in  America. 
Meantime  a  free  citizen,  to  whose  services  Britain  has  no 
pretext  of  right,  is  made  against  his  will  to  serve  her.  Mere 
release  of  the  injured  is  no  amend ;  the  thing  ought  not  to 
happen.  All  this  was  readily  admitted,  and  our  Minister,  Rufus 
King,  believed  an  agreement  to  stop  the  evil  was  about  to  be 
j  reached  when  Pitt  retired  from  office ;  when  Mr.  Addington 
I  took  his  place ;  when  Lord  Hawkesbury  became  Foreign 
Secretary ;  when  peace  was  made  with  Bonaparte,  and  the 
I  vexed  questions  of  impressment  and  desertion  were  left  un- 
[^  ^settled.  Impressment  for  the  time  being  stopped,  but  deser- 
tions went  on,  and  were  openly  encouraged  to  go  on.  Edward 
Thornton,  the  British  charge,  who  succeeded  Robert  Liston, 
declared  that  in  every  port  of  the  United  States  his  Majesty's 
sailors  were  systematically  urged  to  desert  as  a  means  of 
frightening  British  vessels  from  our  shores,  and  preventing 
their  coming  in  competition  with  American  shipping.  "When 
he  asked  for  the  return  of  a  man  who  had  left  a  man-of-war 
lying  off  Norfolk  and  enlisted  on  a  United  States  revenue 
cutter,  he  was  told  that  he  asked  for  what  neither  the  laws 
of  nations  nor  the  provisions  of  any  treaty  required.  So 
little  disposed  was  the  administration  to  stop  this  abuse  that 
Virginia  was  quietly  suffered  to  decree  that  whoever  delivered 
up,  or  caused  to  be  delivered  up,  for  transportation  beyond 
the  sea,  any  free  person,  was  guilty  of  a  felony,  and  should,  on 
conviction,  be  imprisoned  ten  years ;  and  that,  if  the  person  so 
given  up  suffered  death,  the  felon  should  suffer  death  as  an 
aider  and  abettor  of  murder.*  To  ask  for  the  arrest  and  sur- 

*  Laws  of  Virginia,  chapter  71,  January  21,  1801. 


1803.  IMPRESSMENT.  245 

render  of  a  British  deserter  in  the  face  of  this  law  was  use- 
less. 

Thus  matters  stood  when  the  peace  secured  at  Amiens  was 
broken,  and  France  and  England  were  again  at  war.  Know- 
ing that  war  was  surely  coming,  King,  in  the  early  part  of 
1803,  renewed  negotiations  and  brought  them  almost  to  a 
successful  issue.  He  persuaded  the  first  Lord  of  the  Admiral- 
ty to  agree  that  impressment  should  no  longer  be  practised  on 
the  high  seas,  and  that  neither  nation  should  permit  seafaring 
men  to  be  clandestinely  concealed  or  carried  away  from  the 
territories  or  colonial  possessions  of  the  other.  But  when 
the  agreement  came  to  be  put  in  the  form  of  a  convention  his 
Lordship  insisted  that  the  narrow  seas  should  be  expressly  ex- 
empted from  the  provision  against  impressment.  King  would 
not  consent,  and  the  negotiation  ended  in  failure.  War  be- 
tween France  and  England  followed  almost  immediately.  A 
hot  press  took  place  in  the  seaports  and  colonies  of  Great 
Britain,  and  scores  of  American  citizens,  natives  and  natural- 
ized, were  again  dragged  from  the  decks  of  merchant  ships  to 
the  decks  of  ships  of  war. 

Just  at  this  time  Rufus  King  ceased  to  be  Minister  Pleni^ 
potentiary  from  the  United  States,  and  James  Monroe  took 
his  place.  No  easy  task  was  assigned  him,  for  not  only  were 
old  grievances  revived,  but  every  month  new  ones  were  added. 
Not  only  were  our  sailors  impressed  and  our  ships  searched, 
but  our  harbors  were  blockaded  and  our  laws  set  at  naught. 
Fleets  of  English  frigates  cruised  off  Chesapeake  Bay  and 
New  York  harbor,  waiting  for  French  privateers,  and  search- 
ing our  merchantmen  for  contraband  goods  and  British  sea- 
men. English  officers  violated  our  laws  and  defied  the  juris- 
diction of  our  courts  even  when  the  vessels  rode  at  anchor  in  ; 
our  waters.  Paper  blockades  were  laid  on  Martinique  and 
Guadeloupe.  The  old  rule  of  1756  was  enforced;  the  old 
quarrel  over  contraband  goods  was  renewed ;  the  dispute  con- 
cerning the  boundary  between  Maine  and  New  Brunswick  had 
become  quite  serious,  and  on  the  thirty-first  of  October,  1803, 
every  one  of  the  commercial  articles  of  the  treaty  of  1794 
had  expired.  A  settlement  of  all  these  matters  was  to  be 
sought  by  Monroe.  But  he  was  to  begin  by  offering  a 


246  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    OHAP.  xvin. 

mercial  convention  of  which  the  plan  was  marked  out  by 
Madison.  One  article  forbade  impressment  on  the  high  seas ; 
another  prescribed  the  manner  of  making  a  search ;  a  third 
gave  a  long  list  of  articles  contraband  of  war ;  a  fourth  de- 
fined a  valid  blockade ;  a  fifth  denied  protection  to  deserters 
from  the  navy ;  a  sixth,  to  deserters  from  the  army.  The  con- 
vention was  to  be  in  force  for  eight  years.  Thus  instructed, 
he  appeared  before  Lord  Hawkesbury,  was  patiently  heard,  and 
promised  that,  if  he  would  frame  a  convention  on  such  a  plan, 
it  should  be  promptly  submitted  to  the  Cabinet.  Monroe 
made  the  draft.  But  the  ministry  changed.  Addington  gave 
I  place  to  Pitt.  Lord  Hawkesbury  was  succeeded  by  Lord  Har- 
rowby,  and  with  the  proposed  convention  the  new  Secretary 
would  have  nothing  to  do.  For  a  while  he  would  not  read 
it ;  he  would  not  discuss  it ;  he  would  not  give  it  a  moment's 
thought.  "When  at  last  he  did,  it  was  merely  to  ask  for  delay, 
and  while  he  delayed,  the  quarrel  of  Charles  Pinckney  and 
Cevallos  called  Monroe  to  Spain.  On  his  return  to  London 
in  July,  1805,  Monroe  found  a  new  complication  and  a  new 
minister  awaiting  him.  The  Yice- Admiralty  Court  of  New- 
foundland had  condemned  the  Aurora ;  the  Court  of  Appeals 
had  decided  the  case  of  the  Essex ;  Lord  Harrowby  had  fallen 
from  power,  and  Lord  Mulgrave  was  Secretary  of  Foreign 
Affairs. 

Shortly  after  the  renewal  of  war  in  1803,  a  ISTew  York 
marine  insurance  company,  so  the  story  runs,  began  to  suffer 
losses  in  consequence  of  French  frigates  and  privateers  captur- 
ing ships  on  which  it  had  risks.  The  president  of  the  com- 
pany thereupon  wrote  to  the  British  Consul  and  asked  his  in- 
fluence to  have  an  English  armed  ship  stationed  off  the  port 
to  keep  the  Frenchmen  away.  Two  were  sent,  and  about  the 
middle  of  June,  1804,  the  Cambrian,  a  frigate  of  forty-four 
guns,  and  the  Driver,  a  sloop  of  eighteen,  came  over  the  bar 
and  anchored  hard  by  two  French  frigates  then  in  port. 
Shortly  after,  a  British  vessel  named  the  Pitt,  from  Greenock, 
entered  the  lower  bay  and  was  there  brought  to  and  searched 
by  armed  boats  from  the  Cambrian.  Twenty  sailors  were  im- 
pressed, and  when  the  revenue  officer  and  the  health  officer 
attempted  to  go  over  the  side  of  the  Pitt  they  were  driven 


1804,  CA.SE  OF  THE  AURORA.  247 

back  by  armed  sailors.*  For  tliis  gross  outrage  the  captain  of 
the  Cambrian  condescended  to  apologize.  His  people,  he  ex- 
plained, were  ignorant  of  the  law.  They  were  not  aware  that 
an  English  ship  could  ever  be  subject  to  the  authority  of  the 
United  States.  But  he  would  not  give  up  the  impressed  sail- 
ors till  the  British  Consul  informed  him  that  he  must.  The 
United  States  complained,  the  captain  was  recalled  and  pro- 
moted, and  Congress,  justly  incensed,  passed  the  act  of  March, 

1805,  for  the  more  effectual  preservation  of  peace  in  the  ports 
and  harbors  of  the  United  States.     This  law  Monroe  was  to 
explain  most  carefully,  for  the  English  Minister  had  remon- 
strated against  the  strong  language  of  the  sixth  section.     At 
the  same  time  he  was  to  protest  against  the  decision  in  the 
case  of  the  Aurora,  f    While  Spain  was  at  war  with  Great 
Britain  the  Aurora  brought  a  cargo  of  Spanish  goods  froinA 
Havana  to  Charleston,  landed  the  produce,  and  paid  the  duty 
according  to  law.    After  three  weeks  the  cargo  was  reshipped, 
the  duty  drawn  back,  save  the  three  and  a  half  per  cent,  re- 
tained on  articles  exported  after  importation,  and  the  ship 
cleared  for  Barcelona  in  old  Spain.     On  the  way  an  English 
cruiser  searched  and  sent  her  for  trial  to  Newfoundland,  where 
the  cargo  was  condemned  by  the  Court  of  Yice- Admiralty. 
Breaking  bulk  and  paying  duty  at  Charleston  did  not,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  Court,  break  the  voyage.     It  was  continuous, 
and,  being  continuous,  was  direct  and  illegal.     The  decision 
was  startling,  for,  should  it  be  confirmed  by  the  Court  of 
Appeals,  a  trade  valued  at  thirty-two  millions  of  dollars  and 
yielding  a  revenue  of  one  hundred  and  eighty-four  thousand 
annually  was  ended.     In  the  cases  of  the  Essex,  the  Rowena, 
the  Enoch,  and  the  Mars,  the  decision  of  the  Newfoundland 
court  was  more  than  affirmed,  and,  when  Monroe  appeared 
before  Lord  Mulgrave  in  August,  had  become  the   settled 
policy  of  England. 

Again  the  old  troubles  were  gone  over.     Again  delay  fol- 
lowed delay,  and  1805  ended  with  nothing  done.     In  January, 

1806,  Pitt  died.     In  February  Charles  James  Fox  was  called 


*  Gazette  of  the  United  States,  June  19,  20,  21,  1801. 
f  Madison  to  Monroe,  April  12,  1805. 


248  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  EIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvm. 

To  power,  and  to  him,  in  turn,  Monroe  presented  the  time- 
worn  complaints  and  remonstrances,  and  once  more  waited 
patiently  while  the  old  mummery  of  considering  them  was 
gone  through  with.  In  April  the  Non-importation  Act  was 
passed,  and  almost  immediately  William  Pinkney  was  joined 
with  Monroe,  and  the  two  made  Commissioners  Extraordinary 
and  Plenipotentiary  to  settle  all  matters  of  difference  between 
the  United  States  and  Great  Britain. 

Their  instructions  were  full  and  explicit.  They  were  to 
explain  the  Non-importation  Act  just  passed.  They  were  to 
insist  that  impressment  be  given  up,  as  the  condition  on 
which  the  act  would  be  repealed.  They  were  to  abandon  the 
principle  "  free  ships  make  free  goods  "  if  they  could  secure 
the  neutral  right  to  colonial  trade.  They  were  to  insist  that 
contraband  goods  taken  by  a  ship  on  an  outward  voyage  did 
not  taint  the  goods  in  the  ship  on  its  return  voyage.  On  no 
account  were  they  to  yield  to  the  rule  of  1756,  or  to  the  order 
in  council  concerning  broken  voyages,  or  to  the  claim  that 
notice  of  blockade  served  on  a  neutral  minister  might  take 
the  place  of  warning  to  a  neutral  ship  by  a  blockading  vessel. 
Captures  and  searches  were  not  to  be  made  west  of  the  Gulf 
Stream,  or  at  least  not  within  four  leagues  of  shore. 

While  Madison  was  making  ready  these  instructions  at 
Washington — indeed,  on  the  very  seventeenth  of  May  on 
which  he  dated  and  signed  them — Monroe  at  London  received 
from  Fox  formal  notice  of  a  new  order  in  council  laying  new 
restrictions  on  the  neutral  trade.  The  whole  coast  of  Europe, 
from  the  river  Elbe  to  the  port  of  Brest,  both  inclusive,  was 
_gow  blockaded.  So  much  of  the  coast  as  lay  between  Ostend 
and  the  river  Seine  had  already  been  blockaded,  and  into  the 
ports  and  rivers  of  this  region  no  neutral  ship  could  under  any 
circumstances  go  for  purposes  of  trade.  In  any  other  port  or 
river  from  Brest  to  the  Elbe  his  Majesty  was  graciously 
pleased  to  decree,  neutrals  might  still  trade  if  they  did  not 
come  from,  and  did  not  intend  to  go  to,  a  port  in  the  posses- 
sion of  any  of  his  enemies.  Vessels  bearing  the  flag  of  the 
United  States  might  therefore  continue  to  enter  Brest  or 
Embden,  Amsterdam  or  the  Elbe.  But  the  cargoes  which  they 
carried  must  have  been  made  or  grown  in  the  United  States,  or 


1806.  THE  BRITISH  TKEATY  OF  1806.  249 

be  the  product  of  British  looms  or  factories.    Greatly  alarmed 
at  the  character  of  this  new  order  in  council,  Monroe  again~~\ 
pressed  for  a  settlement  of  affairs.     Again  he  was  met  with   I 
excuses  and  delays,  and  again  delay  was  followed  by  more 
complications.    "Word  came  that  the  Non-importation  Act  had  ) 
passed ;  that  Pierce  had  been  killed  by  a  shot  from  the  Lean- ' 
der  in  the  harbor  of  New  York  ;  that  Pinkney  was  coming 
out  to  join  Monroe.     Eager  for  any  excuse  for  delay,  Fox 
seized  on  the  appointment  of  Pinkney,  and  declared  that  noth- 
ing could  be  done  till  the  new  commissioner  arrived.     In  Jurte" 
the  new  commissioner  reached  London.    But  in  June  Fox  was 
stricken  with  gout,  and  in  a  few  weeks  was  carried  to  his 
grave. 

The  illness  of  Fox  brought  up  the  question  who  should 
present  the  commissioners  to  the  King,  and  a  whole  month 
went  by  before  it  was  settled.  Then  came  the  question  who 
should  attend  to  the  business  of  the  American  commissioner, 
and  another  month  sped  by  ere  that  duty  was  given  to  Lord 
Auckland  and  Lord  Holland.  It  was  now  the  twentieth  of 
August ;  but  it  was  not  till  the  twenty-eighth  of  August  that 
an  exchange  of  powers  took  place  and  the  business  began  in 
earnest.  During  four  months  the  commissioners  went  on 
holding  interviews,  exchanging  notes  and  drawing  up  projects 
and  counter-projects  of  articles.  At  last,  early  in  December^" 
a  treaty,  based  on  the  despised,  condemned,  and  hated  work  of 
Jay,  was  almost  completed.  Indeed,  the  day  on  which  it  would 
be  signed  seemed  at  hand  when  a  few  words,  written  by  order 
of  Napoleon,  threw  the  negotiation  into  confusion.  That  he 
would  never  tamely  submit  to  the  orders  in  council  of  May  six- 
teenth was  certain  from  the  day  they  issued.  But  he  bided 
his  time  and  chose  for  retaliation  that  moment  when  the  battle/ 
of  Jena,  the  humiliation  of  Prussia,  and  the  triumphant  entry! 
into  her  capital  made  him  master  of  the  continent.  Then,' 
when  the  whole  civilized  world  was  anxiously  waiting  to  see ; 
what  he  would  do  next,  he  signed  that  paper  now  famous  as/ 
the  Berlin  decree.*  In  it  he  charged  England  with  violating', 
the  law  of  nations,  with  making  prisoners  of  non-combatants,; 

*  November  21,  1806. 


250  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvm. 

with  seizing  private  property,  with  blockading  unfortified 
towns  and  mouths  of  rivers,  whole  coasts  and  empires.  He 
declared  that  till  she  mended  her  ways  the  whole  coast  of  Eng- 
land, Ireland,  Scotland,  and  Wales  was  in  a  state  of  blockade. 
All  trade  with  the  British  islands  was  forbidden.  Englishmen 
and  property  belonging  to  them  were  to  be  seized  wherever 
found.  All  goods,  wares,  and  merchandise,  the  product  of 
England  or  her  colonies,  were  made  lawful  prize,  and  half  the 
profits  of  such  seizures  set  apart  to  indemnify  merchants  de- 
spoiled by  English  cruisers.  No  vessel  which  had  so  much  as 
touched  at  an  English  port  was  to  be  suffered  to  enter  any 
port  or  colony  of  France. 

'/""""The  decree  was  directed  against  all  neutral  trade.  But 
pie  only  neutral  trade  worthy  of  consideration  was  that  car- 
{ried  on  in  American  bottoms.  In  London,  therefore,  men  of 
business  read  it  with  the  deepest  interest.  At  Lloyd's  Coffee- 
House,  where  the  underwriters  gathered ;  on  the  Stock  Ex- 
change ;  at  the  Bank ;  at  the  Foreign  Office  in  DoAvning 
Street,  the  questions  of  the  hour  were,  "Will  the  decree  be  en- 
forced ?  If  it  be  enforced,  will  the  Americans  submit  ?  Will 
,-the  Americans  resist  ?  And  if  they  resist  will  they  fight,  and  if 
they  fight  will  they  join  us  in  the  war  ?  So  serious  did  the 
matter  seem  that  Monroe  and  Pinckney  were  informed  that 
no  treaty  could  be  made  till  it  was  known  what  the  United 
,  .JStates  would  do.  The  treaty  which  is  being  made,  said  in 
substance  the  British  commissioners,  binds  us  to  observe  the 
neutral  rights  of  the  United  States.  Nay,  more ;  it  yields  to 
the  United  States  much  of  what  we  believe  to  be  our  un- 
questionable rights  of  war.  To  sign  such  a  treaty  after  read- 
ing the  Berlin  decree  would  be  to  hinder  ourselves  from 
counteracting  the  policy  of  France.  To  do  this  would  be  un- 
wise unless  the  United  States  will  agree  to  uphold  her  neutral 
right  against  the  decrees  of  Napoleon.  Will  your  Govern- 
ment do  this?  Will  you  consent  to  draw  up  a  treaty  and 
send  it  to  the  United  States  with  this  understanding :  the 
treaty  to  become  binding  when  your  Government  formally 
agrees  to  maintain  her  rights  on  the  sea  against  the  aggressions 
of  France  ? 

We  cannot,  said   the  American  commissioners,  think  of 


1806.  THE  BRITISH  TREATY  OF  1806.  253 

such  a  thing.  To  make  such  a  proposition  would  be  saying  | 
to  our  Government,  Which  will  you  have,  a  treaty  with  Great  J 
Britain,  or  a  war  with  France  ?  For  you  tell  us  if  such  an 
agreement  be  not  made  the  treaty  is  lost.  We  know  very 
well  that  if  such  an  agreement  be  made  France  will  go  steadily 
on  in  her  aggressions,  and  that  war  will  follow  inevitably.  His 
Majesty's  government,  again,  ought  not  to  suppose  for  a  mo- 
ment that  the  United  States  will  fail  to  support  her  right  with 
any  power.  Nor  should  you  fail  to  see  that  such  an  agree- 
ment made  with  you  would  amount  to  a  threat,  and  would 
cut  off  all  hope  of  coming  to  any  understanding  with  France. 
Lords  Holland  and  Auckland  admitted  that  there  was  much 
truth  in  this,  and  reported  what  had  been  said  to  the  Cabinet. 
While  the  Cabinet  deliberated,  negotiations  went  on  until  the 
twenty-seventh  of  December,  when  it  was  agreed  to  put  the 
treaty  into  writing.  On  December  thirty-first  it  was  signe 
As  the  commissioners  from  the  United  States  were  about 
affix  their  names  a  note  was  placed  in  their  hands  by  the  com- 
missioners on  the  part  of  Great  Britain.  This  informed 
them  that  his  Majesty  would  not  recede  from  his  position 
on  the  Berlin  decree,  and  that  if,  before  the  treaty  came  back 
from  the  United  States,  Napoleon  did  not  abandon  his  unjust 
pretensions,  or  the  United  States  gave  assurance  that  these 
pretensions  should  be  withstood,  the  signatures  of  the  Eng- 
lish commissioners  would  not  be  binding,  and  Great  Britain 
would  take  such  measures  to  counteract  the  decree  as  seemed 
best. 

It  was  too  late,  however,  to  go  back,  and  Monroe  ancT"" 
Pinkney,  with  many  solemn  protestations  that  the  note  had  no 
approval  from  them,  signed.  Before  the  treaty  left  England 
it  became  apparent  that  the  note  had  no  approval  from  the 
King.  His  commissioners  had  in  his  name  promised  to  make 
no  retaliation  for  the  Berlin  decree  unless  the  United  States 
failed  to  resist.  He  was  therefore  in  duty  bound  to  wait  a 
reasonable  time  for  the  United  States  to  act.  He  waited  just 
one  week,  and  then,  on  the  seventh  of  January,  1807,  put  forth 
an  order  in  council  most  ruinous  to  our  carrying  trade.  No 
neutral  vessel,  it  was  decreed,  should  be  permitted  to  trade  be- 
tween two  ports  both  of  which  were  in  possession  of  France 


252  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHIP.  xvm. 

•yr  /uiy  of  her  allies.     If  caught  doing  so,  ship  and  cargo  were 
-'^       lawful  prize.* 


£  Intelligence  of  these  things  soon  began  to  reach  the  United 
States.  Early  in  February  came  the  letter  of  Monroe  and 
Pinkney  declaring  they  were  about  to  break  away  from  their 
instructions  and  make  such  a  treaty  as  they  could.  They  were 
instantly  notified  that  the  President  would  not  receive  it. 
Then  came  the  Berlin  decree,  and  on  the  evening  of  March 
third  a  copy  of  the  treaty.  The  copy  was  that  intended  for 
the  English  Minister,  David  Montague  Erskine,  who  a  few 
months  before  had  succeeded  Anthony  Merry.f  With  the 
paper  in  his  hand,  Erskine  at  once  set  off  for  the  Department 
of  State.  There  was  much  need  of  haste,  for  the  last  session 
of  the  ninth  Congress  was  to  end  in  a  few  hours.  If  the  sena- 
tors were  to  be  called  to  meet  in  executive  session  they  ought 
to  be  summoned  at  once,  for  many  of  them  would  by  sunrise 
of  the  next  day  be  on  their  way  home.  To  Erskine's  chagrin, 
Madison  received  the  document  with  every  manifestation  of 
astonishment  and  regret,  told  him  no  treaty  could  be  approved 
which  left  unsettled  the  question  of  impressment  and  search, 
and  declared  that  the  note  concerning  the  Berlin  decree  would 
of  itself  prevent  ratification.  That  the  Senate  would  have 

\withheld  its  assent  may  well  be  doubted.  But  Jefferson,  with 
a  manly  courage  he  often  showed,  determined  that  the  senators 
|hould  never  see  the  treaty.  When,  therefore,  toward  mid- 

„  night,  the  joint  committee  from  the  House  and  Senate  called 
upon  the  President  to  tell  him  that  Congress  was  about  to 
adjourn,  the  senators  were  surprised  to  hear  there  would  be 
no  executive  session,  for  by  that  time  it  was  well  known  in 
Washington  that  a  copy  of  the  treaty  had  arrived.  $  He  was, 
they  reported,  angry ;  had  expressed  his  anger  in  strong  terms, 
and  had  assured  them  that  when  the  official  treaty  came  from 
London  he  would  instantly  send  it  back. 

On  March  fifteenth  the  official  copy  came,  was  filed,  and 
Monroe  and  Pinkney  were  bidden  to  go  on  with  the  negotia- 
tion as  previously  marked  out  till  further  instructions  reached 

*  American  State  Papers,  Foreign  Affairs,  vol.  iii,  pp.  5-7. 

f  November  4,  1806.  ^  Memoirs  of  J.  Q.  Adams,  vol.  i,  p.  466. 


1807.  LEOPAKD  AND  THE  CHESAPEAKE.  253 

them.  The  more  the  treaty  was  studied  the  more  did  its  faults 
stand  out,  so  that  two  months  passed  before  the  instructions 
were  ready,  and  two  more  before  they  reached  London.  Six 
changes  were  demanded.  Provisions  against  impressment  must- 
be  inserted.  Restrictions  on  the  colonial  trade  must  be  removed. 
The  article  forbidding  trade  with  the  Indies  save  in  ships 
coming  directly  from  or  going  directly  to  the  United  States 
must  be  stricken  out.  Sufferers  by  illegal  capture  must  be 
indemnified.  Two  articles,  giving  to  English  cruisers  and 
their  prizes  better  treatment  in  the  ports  of  the  United  States 
than  was  given  to  their  enemies,  must  be  altered.  No  such 
alternative  as  that  set  forth  in  the  declaratory  note  could  be 
listened  to. 

Before  these  instructions  reached  Monroe  the  Whigs  once 
more  fell  from  power.  Lord  Howick,  who  followed  Fox,  was 
in  turn  followed  by  Canning.  Canning  knew  nothing  about 
American  affairs,  and  a  new  delay  occurred  while  he  studied 
them.  At  last,  on  July  twenty-fourth,  a  formal  offer  to  renew 
negotiation  with  a  view  to  amending  the  treaty  was  made 
him.  On  that  day,  however,  the  first  rumor  of  the  attack  of 
the  Leopard  on  the  Chesapeake  reached  London,  and  the  char- 
acter of  the  negotiation  changed  completely. 

The  affair  of  the  Chesapeake  was  but  one  of  a  long  series^ 
of  insolent  acts  which  British  officers  had  been  committing 
along  our  coast.  For  three  years  they  had  kept  the  country 
in  a  state  of  blockade.  Some  cruised  along  the  coast  from 
Eastport  to  Cape  Ann.  Some  lay  off  the  Long  Island  shore. 
Some  searched  vessels  and  impressed  men  within  a  league  of 
Sandy  Hook.  One  squadron  passed  within  the  capes  of 
Chesapeake  Bay  and  anchored  in  Hampton  Roads.  Such  in- 
deed was  the  impudence  of  the  English  commanders  that  the 
Driver,  which  in  the  proclamation  of  the  year  before  had 
been  commanded  never  again  to  enter  any  port  or  harbor  of 
the  United  States,  sailed  boldly  into  Rebellion  Roads  and 
dropped  anchor  off  Fort  Johnson.  The  commandant  of  the 
fort  was  dumfounded.  He  could  hardly  trust  his  eyes,  and, 
not  knowing  what  to  do,  sent  to  ask  the  Governor  how  the 
intruder  should  be  driven  out.  The  Governor  could  not  be 
found.  Sentries  were  therefore  posted  on  the  wharves  to  cut 


254:  FREE  TEADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  XTIII. 

off  supplies,  and  a  correspondence,  which  was  long  remem- 
bered, opened  with  Captain  William  Love,  of  the  Driver.  He 
was  reminded  of  the  proclamation ;  he  was  asked  to  leave  port 
within  twenty-four  hours,  and  a  hope  was  expressed  that  no 
blood  should  be  spilled.  The  reply  of  the  captain  was  long 
and  insolent.  He  declared  that  Mr.  Jefferson's  proclamation 
would  have  disgraced  the  sanguinary  pen  of  Robespierre  or  the 
most  miserable  and  petty  state  of  Barbary ;  intimated  that  he 
would  sail  when  ready ;  asserted  his  readiness  to  punish  any 
insult  offered  to  his"  master's  flag;  and  threatened  that,  if 
water  was  not  furnished  him,  he  would  take  it  by  force.  Nor 
was  he  worse  than  his  word.  A  plentiful  supply  of  water  was 
secured,  and  the  Driver,  to  the  shame  of  our  Government, 
sailed  unmolested  away.  The  letter  of  Love  meantime  was 
sent  on  to  Washington,  and  at  Washington  was  carefully 
placed  on  file. 

Worse  yet  was  the  behavior  of  Lieutenant  John  Flin- 
toph,  of  his  Majesty's  armed  schooner  Pogge.  Early  in 
the  evening  of  a  June  day  he  entered  the  bay  of  Pas- 
samaquoddy,  boarded  and  searched  the  shipping,  fired  on 
the  town  of  Passamaquoddy,  and  sent  a  shot  rolling  between 
children  at  play.  A  month  later  he  was  again  in  port.  This 
time  he  fired  on  a  revenue  boat,  searched  half  a  dozen 
American  vessels,  impressed  some  American  sailors,  and 
with  round  shot  cut  to  pieces  the  sails  and  rigging  of  a 
schooner. 

The  favorite  station  on  the  coast  was,  however,  Chesa- 
peake Bay.  In  the  summer  of  1806  a  fine  French  squadron 
of  frigates  and  ships  of  the  line  encountered  a  cyclone  off  our 
coast,  was  dispersed,  and  a  part  forced  to  take  refuge  in  Chesa- 
peake Bay.  Thither  an  English  squadron  followed  and  estab- 
lished a  close  blockade.  There  at  almost  any  time  might  be 
seen  just  without  the  capes  or  riding  at  anchor  in  Lynnhaven 
Bay  the  Bellona,  the  Triumph,  the  Halifax,  the  Chichester,  the 
Melampus,  the  Belleisle.  Their  tenders  scoured  the  waters  of 
the  bay,  fired  on  vessels  that  would  not  stop,  searched  those 
that  did,  and  inflicted  on  Norfolk,  Hampton,  and  Baltimore 
much  of  the  rigor  of  a  blockade.  In  April  the  Melampus, 
when  off  Cape  Henry  and  not  two  miles  from  shore,  made 


1807.  DESERTERS  FROM  THE  MELAMPUS.  255 

prize  of  ti:e  Three  Brothers,  impressed  ten  of  the  crew,  and 
detained  he/  passengers.  In  May  she  overhauled  the  Mer- 
cury, rifled  the  mail,  and  examined  all  the  papers  on  board. 
In  June  a  revenue  cutter  with  the  revenue  flag  at  her  mast- 
head and  the  Vice-President  on  board  was  hotly  chased  and 
fired  on  by  an  armed  boat  belonging  to  the  squadron.  In- 
solent as  this  was,  an  act  more  insolent  still  was  soon  to 
follow. 

In  the  course  of  the  month  of  February,  1807,  the  Me- 
lampus  happening  to  be  at  anchor  in  Hampton  Roads,  the 
officers  made  use  of  the  opportunity  and  gave  a  fine  entertain- 
ment on  board.  When  the  festivity  was  at  its  height,  when 
the  attention  of  all  was  taken  up  by  the  toasting  and  the  sing- 
ing, five  of  the  crew,  noticing  that  the  officers'  gig  was  not 
hoisted  in,  slipped  over  the  side  and  rowed  for  the  shore.  A 
shower  of  bullets  followed  them ;  but  the  beach  was  reached, 
and,  giving  three  cheers,  the  men  fled  to  Norfolk.  The 
names  of  the  five  were  William  Ware,  Daniel  Martin,  John 
Strachan,  John  Little,  and  Ambrose  Watts.  At  Norfolk 
Lieutenant  Sinclair  was  enlisting  men  for  the  navy  of  the 
United  States,  and  with  him  Martin,  Ware,  and  Strachan 
engaged  for  service  on  the  frigate  Chesapeake.  A  demand 
for  their  arrest  and  return  as  deserters  was  made  by 
the  English  Consul  at  Norfolk,  was  duly  sent  to  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Navy,  and  was  by  him  referred  to  Commo- 
dore Barron  for  reply.  Not  one  of  the  three,  the  Commo- 
dore assured  the  Secretary,  was  a  subject  of  King  George. 
Strachan  had  been  born  on  the  eastern  shore  of  Maryland ; 
Ware  was  a  mulatto  and  a  native  of  the  same  State ;  Mar- 
tin was  a  negro,  came  from  Massachusetts,  and  had  been  im- 
pressed at  the  same  time  as  Ware.  Of  Watts  and  Little 
nothing  was  known,  as  no  enlisting  officer  had  returned  their 
names. 

Letters  were  still  passing  to  and  fro  between  the  Consul, 
the  Captain,  and  the  authorities  at  Washington  when  more 
seamen  escaped  from  the  fleet.  It  should  seem  that  on  the 
seventh  of  March  five  British  sailors,  while  weighing  anchor 
on  the  Halifax,  a  sloop-of-war,  rose,  silenced  the  officer  with 
threats  of  murder,  seized  the  jolly-boat,  escaped  to  the  Virginia 


256  FKEE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvm. 

shore,*  and  tlie  next  day  enlisted  with  Lieutenant  Sinclair  as 
part  of  the  crew  of  the  Chesapeake.  They  were  named  Rich- 
ard Hubert,  a  sailmaker,  impressed  at  Liverpool ;  George 
North,  captain  of  the  main-top ;  Henry  Saunders,  yeoman 
of  the  sheets ;  William  Hill,  of  Philadelphia,  who  had  en- 
listed at  Antigua,  and  Jenkin  Ratford,  of  London.  Their 
names  were  hardly  on  the  enlistment  roll  when  the  commander 
of  the  Halifax  applied  for  their  return.  Recruiting  officers 
had  been  ordered  not  to  accept  British  deserters.  Sinclair 
ought  therefore  to  have  discharged  the  men.  But  he  gave 
an  evasive  answer  and  kept  them  at  the  recruiting  sta- 
tion. Applications  were  then  made  by  the  commander  of 
the  Halifax  to  Decatur,  by  the  British  Consul  to  the  Mayor 
of  Norfolk,  and  by  the  English  Minister  to  the  Secretary 
of  State,  who  replied  that  reasons  had  already  been  given 
for  not  granting  such  requests.  Thus  protected,  the  men 
were  in  time  sent  to  Washington,  were  there  put  on  board 
the  Chesapeake,  and  remained  on  board  till  the  frigate 
came  down  the  Potomac,  when  all  but  Jenkin  Ratford  de- 
serted. 

~~  Most  of  these  facts — how  the  men  had  escaped  from  the 
Melampus  and  the  Halifax ;  how  the  Consul  had  made  a  de- 
mand for  their  return;  how  the  authorities  of  the  United 
States  had  refused  to  return  them ;  how  the  men  from  the 
Halifax  had  enlisted  on  board  the  frigate  Chesapeake ;  how 
they  had  been  seen  parading  the  streets  of  Norfolk  protected 
by  the  American  flag,  the  magistrates  of  the  town,  and  the 
Wecruiting  officer — were  all  duly  reported  at  Halifax  to  George 
Cranfield  Berkeley,  vice-admiral  of  the  white  and  commander- 
in-chief  of  his  Majesty's  ships  and  vessels  on  the  North  Ameri- 
can station.  What  he  heard  seems  to  have  filled  him  with 
indignation,  and,  while  angry,  he  sat  down  and  wrote  an  order 
which  is  not  likely  to  be  forgotten  so  long  as  the  history  of 
our  country  is  read.  He  dated  it  June  first,  addressed  it  to 
the  captains  and  commanders  of  his  Majesty's  ships  and  vessels 
on  the  North  American  station,  bade  them  watch  for  the 
Chesapeake,  and,  when  met  without  the  limits  of  the  United 

*  Norfolk  Ledger,  June  24,  1807. 


1807.  BERKELEY'S   ORDER.  257 

States,  stop  and  search  her  for  deserters.*  That  those  from 
the  Melampus  had  joined  the  Chesapeake  was  then  unknown 
to  Admiral  Berkeley.  His  order,  therefore,  related  to  the  five 
men — Hubert,  Saunders,  Eatford,  North,  and  Hill — who  had 
escaped  from  the  Halifax. 

~No  authority  had  been  given  Admiral  Berkeley  to  issue 
such  orders.  But  this  mattered  not,  and,  having  written  them, 
he  sent  them  by  the  commander  of  the  Leopard  to  Chesapeake 
Bay.  Three  weeks  later  the  Leopard  reached  her  destination 
and  delivered  the  orders  to  Captain  John  Erskine  Douglas,  of 
the  line-of -battle  ship  Bellona,  then  riding  at  anchor  with  the 
Melampus  in  Lynnhaven.  To  execute  the  order  was  easy,  for 
the  Leopard  had  not  been  ten  hours  on  the  station  when  the 
Chesapeake,  Commodore  James  Barron  in  command,  came 
down  the  Elizabeth  river  and  dropped  anchor  in  the  Boads. 
She  was  on  her  way  to  Europe  to  take  the  place  of  the  Consti- 
tution, which  for  four  years  past  had  been  cruising  in  the 
Mediterranean.  Much  of  the  labor  of  fitting  her  was  done  in 
the  Eastern  Branch  at  "Washington.  But,  the  Potomac  being 
shallow,  her  heavy  guns,  stores,  and  ammunition  were  taken 
on  board  at  Norfolk.  Her  gun-decks  were  still  lumbered ;  the 
crew  had  never  been  exercised,  but,  as  she  was  already  four 
months  overdue,  these  things  were  left  to  be  corrected  during 
the  voyage,  and,  at  half  past  seven  on  the  morning  of  June 


*  "  Whereas  many  seamen,  subjects  of  his  Britannic  Majesty,  and  serving  in 
his  ships  and  vessels  as  per  margin,  while  at  anchor  in  the  Chesapeake,  deserted, 
and  entered  on  board  the  United  States  frigate  called  the  Chesa- 
peake, and  openly  paraded  the  streets  of  Norfolk,  in  sight  of  their 
Triumph.  officers,  under  the  American  flag,  protected  by  the  magistrates  of 
Chichester.  the  town  and  the  recruiting  officer  belonging  to  the  above-mentioned 
Halifax.  American  frigate,  which  magistrates  and  naval  officer  refused  giving 
them  up,  although  demanded  by  his  Britannic  Majesty's  Cansul,  as 
well  as  the  captains  of  the  ships  from  which  the  said  men  had  deserted. 

"  The  captains  and  commanders  of  his  Majesty's  ships  and  vessels  under  my 
command  are  therefore  hereby  required  and  directed,  in  case  of  meeting  with  the 
American  frigate  Chesapeake  at  sea,  and  without  the  limits  of  the  United  States, 
to  show  to  the  captain  of  her  this  order,  and  to  require  to  search  his  ship  for  the 
deserters  from  the  before-mentioned  ships,  and  to  proceed  and  search  for  th« 
same ;  and  if  a  similar  demand  should  be  made  by  the  American,  he  is  to  be  per- 
mitted to  search  for  any  deserters  from  their  service,  according  to  the  customs 
and  usage  of  civilized  nations  on  terms  of  peace  and  amity  with  each  other." 

TOL.  III. — 18 


258  FREE  TKADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvm. 

twenty-second,  the  wind  being  fair,  the  frigate  weighed  anchor 
and  stood  out  to  sea.  In  Lynnhaven  Bay  were  the  Bellona  and 
the  Melampus.  Just  without  the  capes  was  the  Leopard.  As 
the  Chesapeake  passed  the  English  ships  her  officers  took  notice 
that  the  flags  were  flying  and  appearances  were  friendly.  But 
hardly  had  she  passed  when  signals  were  exchanged,  and  in  a 
few  minutes  the  Leopard  hoisted  sail  and  followed.  The  wind 
falling  light,  it  was  not  till  four  in  the  afternoon  that  the  Leop- 
ard came  up  with  the  Chesapeake  and  spoke  her.  Suppos- 
ing the  communication  to  be  of  a  peaceful  nature,  Commodore 
Barron  hove  to  and  an  officer  was  soon  on  deck  with  a  letter. 
The  note  contained  a  copy  of  Berkeley's  order,  naming  six 
English  ships,  deserters  from  which  were  believed  to  be  on 
board,  and  expressed  the  hope  that  the  search  might  not  be  re- 
sisted. Barron,  supposing  that  he  had  in  the  crew  no  deserters 
save  those  from  the  Melampus,  and  noticing  that  the  Melampus 
was  not  one  of  the  six  on  Berkeley's  list,  answered  that  no 
deserters  from  the  English  navy  were  in  his  crew,  and  that  no 
officers  but  his  own  should  muster  his  people.  When  this  reply 
reached  the  Leopard  she  at  once  showed  signs  of  hostility. 
Noticing  this,  Barron  bade  his  men  go  to  quarters  as  quietly 
and  quickly  as  possible.  They  had  not,  however,  cleared  away 
half  the  sails  and  cables  that  lumbered  the  gun-deck  when  the 
Leopard  ranged  alongside,  fired  a  gun  across  the  bow,  and  de- 
livered a  broadside.  To  reply  was  impossible.  Indeed,  the 
condition  of  the  Chesapeake  was  a  disgrace  to  the  government 
that  sent  her  out  and  to  the  officer  who  commanded  her. 
Some  of  the  guns  were  not  even  on  their  carriages.  The 
sponges,  the  wads,  the  very  cartridges  would  not  go  into  the 
mouths  of  the  few  guns  that  were  mounted.  Not  a  rammer 
could  be  found.  Not  a  powder-horn  was  full.  The  matches 
were  all  mislaid.  The  loggerheads  were  cold.  After  twenty 
minutes  a  gun  was  loaded  and  fired  with  a  live  coal  brought 
from  the  cook's  galley.  Then,  when  twenty-one  round  shot 
had  struck  the  hold,  when  the  foremast  and  the  main-mast  had 
been  destroyed,  when  the  mizzen-mast  had  been  greatly  injured, 
when  the  rigging  had  been  badly  cut,  when  three  men  had 
been  killed  and  eighteen  wounded,  Barron  hauled  down  his 
colors  and  the  Chesapeake  was  a  prize. 


1807.  THE  CHESAPEAKE  SEARCHED.  259 

Several  British  officers  were  at  once  sent  on  board.  The 
purser  gave  up  his  book,  the  crew  were  mustered,  and  of  the 
three  hundred  and  seventy-five  men  and  boys  on  the  deck, 
twelve  were  found  to  be  British  subjects.  As  they  were  not  de- 
serters they  were  not  molested.  Three  more,  Ware,  Strachan, 
and  Martin,  had  once  been  members  of  the  crew  of  the  Me- 
lampus.  Ratford,  of  the  Halifax,  was  not  present,  but  was 
found  by  the  searchers  hidden  in  the  hold.  These  four  were 
taken  to  the  Leopard,  which  at  once  made  sail  for  her  anchor- 
age within  the  capes.  Ratford  was  sent  to  Halifax,  was  tried 
for  mutiny  and  desertion,  found  guilty,  and  hung.  His  com- 
panions were  not  subjects  of  the  King,  and  were  reserved  for 
a  better  fate. 

The  commander  of  the  Leopard  having  refused  to  receive 
his  prize,  the  Chesapeake,  battered  and  half  disabled,  with 
every  pump  working  and  with  three  feet  of  water  in  her  hold, 
made  her  way  back  to  Hampton  Roads.  Early  on  the  morn- 
ing of  June  twenty -third  a  rumor  reached  Norfolk  that  the 
Chesapeake  had  been  attacked  at  sea,  and  had  struck  her  colors 
to  the  Leopard.  The  bearer  of  the  news  was  not  thought  to 
be  reliable.  But  the  act  seemed  one  the  British  were  so  likely 
to  commit  that  every  boat  that  came  to  Norfolk  was  quickly 
surrounded  by  men  eager  to  know  the  truth.  About  two  in 
the  afternoon  a  boatman  from  the  capes  reported  that  he  saw 
the  Chesapeake  at  anchor  in  the  Roads  without  her  flag.  At 
four,  a  boat  with  eleven  wounded  sailors  reached  the  wharf. 
The  whole  town  was  thrown  into  confusion.  Business  stopped. 
Such  British  officers  as  happened  to  be  on  shore  fled  to  their 
ships.  The  British  Consul  shut  himself  in  his  house  and 
prepared  for  defence.  While  some  of  the  citizens  hastened 
home  to  cast  ball  and  make  cartridges,  the  rest  met,  resolved 
to  send  no  supplies  to  any  British  ship,  and  to  hold  no  com- 
munication with  any  British  agent ;  declared  they  would  deem 
any  man  who  did,  an  enemy  to  his  country ;  asked  the  collector 
of  the  port  to  use  the  revenue  cutter  to  prevent  supplies  going 
out  to  the  fleet ;  asked  the  Mayor  to  urge  the  colonel  to  call 
out  the  militia ;  asked  the  pilots  not  to  take  out  any  British 
ship ;  voted  to  wear  crape  for  ten  days ;  and  named  a  com- 
mittee to  invite  the  people  of  the  seaports  to  join  them  in 


260  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvm. 

refusing  supplies.  How  determined  they  were  to  keep  these 
resolutions  was  soon  made  evident.  Not  a  pound  of  meat,  not 
a  drop  of  water  went  out  to  the  fleet.  At  Hampton  the  people 
boarded  a  sloop  laden  with  water-casks  for  the  Melampus  and 
broke  every  one  of  them  in  pieces.  That  Captain  Douglas, 
who  commanded  the  English  squadron,  would  patiently  submit 
was  not  believed  by  any  one.  All  manner  of  threats  were 
therefore  attributed  to  him.  No  story  which  any  one  chose 
to  invent  was  too  wild  to  be  believed.  It  was  asserted  that  he 
had  sent  a  force  to  Hampton  which  had  slaughtered  and  car- 
ried away  fifty  head  of  cattle ;  that  he  was  about  to  send  the 
Leopard  to  retake  the  Chesapeake;  that  he  would  have  the 
French  frigate  Sibylle  cut  out ;  that  he  had  positively  asserted 
that  if  the  President  ordered  him  to  quit  the  waters  of  the 
United  States  he  would  begin  hostilities  at  once ;  that  he  had 
menaced  Hampton  with  invasion.  So  sure  were  the  committee 
of  the  people  of  Norfolk  that  Hampton  was  to  be  attacked, 
that  they  begged  Decatur  to  hasten  to  the  relief  of  their  friends. 
It  was  Sunday  evening  when  the  request  was  made.  At  that 
time  not  a  gun-boat  was  ready, 'not  a  sail  was  bent,  not  a  man 
was  enlisted,  not  a  cartridge,  not  a  day's  provisions  were  on 
board.  But  such  was  the  energy  of  Decatur  that,  in  twenty- 
four  hours,  four  gun-boats,  armed,  manned,  and  provisioned, 
were  sailing  down  the  Elizabeth  river  on  their  way  to  Hamp- 
ton. In  the  Roads  Decatur  stopped  them,  for  he,  too,  believed 
that  the  Chesapeake  was  not  safe.  At  this,  some  of  the  volun- 
teers who  manned  the  boats  were  heard  to  murmur.  But,  a 
few  days  later,  when  the  Melampus  and  the  Leopard,  the 
Triumph  and  the  Bellona,  came  up  the  Roads,  formed  line  of 
battle  off  the  Hampton  river,  sent  out  tenders  to  sound  the 
channel,  fired  on  a  private  boat,  and  forced  her  to  carry  a 
despatch  to  the  Mayor  of  Norfolk,  they  admitted  that  the 
action  of  Decatur  was  wise. 

The  despatch  was  in  the  handwriting  of  Captain  Douglas. 
He  wrote  that  he  had  seen  in  a  newspaper  the  resolutions  for- 
bidding any  intercourse  between  the  ships  in  Lynnhaven  Bay 
and  the  people  in  the  town  of  Norfolk.  Were  this  determina- 
tion adhered  to,  the  British  Consul  would  not  be  able  to  per- 
form his  duties.  To  deprive  him  of  the  power  to  do  his  duty 


180T.  THE  MAYOR  OF  NORFOLK.  261 

was  an  extremely  hostile  act — so  hostile,  indeed,  that,  unless 
the  resolutions  were  "immediately  annulled,"  not  a  vessel 
should  go  into  or  come  out  from  Norfolk.  The  British  flag 
never  had  been  and  never  should  be  insulted  with  impunity. 
The  Mayor  replied  with  spirit,  and,  the  day  happening  to  be 
the  fourth  of  July,  he  took  occasion  to  introduce  a  passage 
which  was  read  with  delight  all  over  the  country.  Referring 
to  the  boasts,  the  threats,  the  underscoring  of  the  words  "  im- 
mediately annulled,"  the  Mayor  called  the  attention  of  Captain 
Douglas  to  the  day,  and  hoped  that  it  would  remind  the  sub- 
jects of  his  Majesty  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  were 
not  to  be  frightened  by  threats  or  intimidated  by  menaces. 
He  then  went  on  to  remark  that  the  resolutions  were  passed 
by  the  people,  that  the  town  authorities  had  nothing  to  do 
with  them,  and  that  if  Captain  Douglas  felt  aggrieved  he 
might  seek  for  redress  in  the  courts.  The  messenger  who  car- 
ried the  answer  to  the  Bellona  brought  back  word  that  Doug- 
las declared  he  was  an  abused  man ;  that  no  insult  had  been 
intended ;  and  that  if  the  words  "  immediately  annulled  "  were 
underscored,  they  had  been  so  treated  by  the  Mayor's  clerk. 
His  explanation  was  received  with  scorn,  and  preparations  to 
defend  the  town  against  him  went  on  as  vigorously  as  before. 

Elsewhere  the  indignation  of  the  people  found  expressioif\ 
in  mass  meetings,  resolutions,  toasts,  and  preparations  for  warj 
At  Baltimore  the  young  men  united  for  defence.  Wilming- 
ton resolved  that  the  conduct  of  Great  Britain  shpwed  a  dis- 
position hostile  to  the  peace,  prosperity,  and  independence  of 
the  United  States.  Philadelphia  protested  that  to  submit  to 
the  insult  would  debase  and  degrade  the  nation.  New  York 
voted  the  attack  of  the  Leopard  as  dastardly  as  it  was  unprece- 
dented, and  assured  the  country  that,  while  it  loved  peace,  it 
was  ready  for  war.  At  Boston  bad  feeling  was  displayed,  for 
there  Federalism  was  strong,  and  wherever  Federalism  was 
powerful  Great  Britain  had  open  defenders.  The  call  for  a 
town  meeting  was  at  once  decried.  Some  pretended  that  the 
people  had  not  been  properly  warned,  and  that  if  held  the 
meeting  would  be  illegal.  Some  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  a 
meeting  ought  not  to  be  held.  When  other  people  in  other 
towns  expressed  their  indignation,  it  was  said,  the  President 


262  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    OHAP.  xvm. 

had  not  spoken.  Now  he  has  spoken.  His  proclamation  is 
posted  in  every  coffee-house  and  tavern,  and  has  been  printed 
in  every  newspaper.  To  meet  and  denounce  Great  Britain 
after  all  this  is  simply  to  embarrass  him.  That  the  Federalists 
should  talk  of  disliking  to  embarrass  Jefferson  was  infinitely 
amusing,  and  the  Republicans  held  their  meeting.  Elbridge 
Gerry  was  chosen  moderator,  and,  to  the  horror  of  the  Feder- 
alists, John  Quincy  Adams  attended.  Indeed,  he  was  on  the 
committee  that  drew  the  resolutions  declaring  that  every  Re- 
publican of  Boston  would,  with  life  and  fortune,  support  any 
measure,  however  strong,  the  Government  might  deem  best. 

Not  to  be  outdone  in  a  show  of  patriotism,  the  Federalists 
now  held  a  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall.  Again  Adams  attended ; 
again  he  was  a  member  of  the  Committee  on  Resolutions ;  again 
the  Government  was  assured  of  hearty  support.  Jefferson 
needed  it  badly,  for  the  task  before  him  was  hard.  Never  had 
a  more  just  cause  for  war  been  given  to  any  people.  Never 
had  a  people  called  more  loudly  for  war.  Never  was  an  admin- 
istration less  inclined  to  fight  or  an  antagonist  more  ready  to 
accept  that  issue.  Whether  there  should  or  should  not  be  war 
depended,  then,  for  the  moment  on  him  and  on  the  amount  of 
insolence  and  abuse  he  could  persuade  a  long-suffering  people 
to  endure  and  an  arrogant  and  head-turned  nation  not  to  in- 
flict. From  his  own  party  and  his  own  people  he  had  little  to 
fear.  Nothing,  he  declared,  had  so  stirred  men  since  the 
battle  of  Lexington.  Yet  he  well  knew  that  such  outbreaks  of 
wrath  were  never  lasting,  and  that  in  a  few  weeks,  if  no  new 
offence  was  committed,  the  brawlers  would  have  begun  to 
count  the  cost  and  would  soon  be  as  submissive  as  ever.  To 
deal  with  England  was  not  so  easy,  and  to  this  he  gave  instant 
attention.  On  June  twenty-fifth  he  heard  of  the  outrage. 
But  his  Secretaries  were  scattered  far  and  wide,  and  July  sec- 
ond came  before  they  met  the  President.  A  proclamation  had 
meantime  been  written,  and,  with  the  approval  of  the  Secre- 
taries, was  made  public  that  afternoon.  Such  a  document 
ought  to  have  been  short,  dignified,  and  vigorous.  It  was, 
after  the  fashion  of  too  many  State  papers  of  that  time,  long 
and  tedious.  It  set  forth  how  careful  the  United  States  had 
been  to  keep  with  good  faith  the  neutrality  she  had  assumed  ; 


1807.  JEFFERSON'S  PROCLAMATION.  263 

how  her  ports  had  been  freely  used  by  each  belligerent ;  how 
both  France  and  England  had  been  suffered  to  mend  their 
ships,  to  provision  their  crews,  to  succor  their  sick  and  dying ; 
how,  in  return  for  this,  British  officers  had  violated  our  laws, 
abused  the  persons  and  trespassed  on  the  property  of  our 
citizens ;  how  complaints  had  been  made  and  often  disregard- 
ed ;  how  promises  of  reform  had  been  given  and  never  kept ; 
how  in  no  case  had  one  of  the  offenders  been  punished ;  how 
at  last  a  deed  had  been  done  which  surpassed  in  atrocity  all 
that  went  before  it ;  how  a  naval  vessel  of  the  United  States 
had  been  followed  to  sea,  fired  on,  captured,  searched,  and 
four  of  her  crew  carried  off  by  a  British  ship-of-war;  and 
how,  that  nothing  might  be  wanting  to  complete  the  enormity 
of  the  crime,  the  Leopard  had  then  returned  to  the  waters  of 
the  nation  whose  flag  she  had  insulted.  This  was  indeed  the 
summit  of  contempt.  Well  did  the  proclamation  say  tha. 
under  such  circumstances  hospitality  ceased  to  be  a  duty,  and 
declare  our  ports  shut  to  the  armed  ships  of  England.  Those 
within  our  waters  were  instantly  to  leave.  None  others  were 
to  enter,  unless  bearing  public  despatches  or  driven  in  by  an 
enemy  or  the  dangers  of  the  sea.  If  for  any  other  reason 
they  came,  no  citizen  should  supply  them  with  food  or  water 
or  hold  any  communication  with  their  officers  or  crews. 

At  the  same  meeting  at  which  this  proclamation  was  a 
proved  the  determination  was  reached  to  order  gun-boats  to 
places  likely  to  be  attacked,  to  bring  home  the  Mediterranean 
fleet,  and  to  send  a  messenger  to  London  with  three  demands : 
a  disavowal  of  the  act  and  of  the  right  to  search  armed  ships  ; 
the  return  of  the  sailors  taken  from  the  Chesapeake ;  the  re- 1 
call  of  the  British  Admiral  Berkeley.  Two  days  later,  whilej 
the  angry  people  all  over  the  country  were  displaying  their 
crape,  drinking  their  toasts,  and  listening  to  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  with  emotions  wholly  new,  the  Secretaries  again 
met  and  discussed  a  call  for  a  session  of  Congress.  Were  the 
members  of  that  body  to  come  together  while  the  excitement 
was  at  its  height,  the  consequences  might  be  serious.  It 
would,  indeed,  be  hard  to  prevent  a  declaration  of  war,  or  at 
least  some  act  of  defiance  that  would  hopelessly  embarrass  the 
tame  and  peaceful  negotiations  soon  to  begin  at  London. 


264:  FREE  TEADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvm. 

Eager  to  prevent  this,  the  Secretaries,  under  the  shallow  pre- 
tence that  Washington  was  too  sickly  a  place  for  Congress  to 
come  to  in  summer,  fixed  the  date  as  the  twenty-sixth  of  Octo- 
ber. On  the  following  day,  July  fifth,  a  copy  of  the  letter  of 

-Captain  Douglas  to  the  Mayor  of  Norfolk  was  received,  and 
Jefferson  determined  to  'call  on  the  Governor  of  each  State  to 
detach  its  share  of  one  hundred  thousand  militia,  and  even 
looked  forward  to  a  winter  campaign  against  Canada.  On  the 
sixth  Madison  signed  and  dated  the  instructions  to  Monroe 
and  Pinkney,  and  gave  the  packet  to  Dr.  John  Bullus  to  carry 
to  England  in  the  Revenge.  The  choice  was  a  wise  one,  for 
the  President  had  some  months  before  appointed  him  Con- 
sul at  a  Mediterranean  port,  whither  he  was  going  in  the 
Chesapeake  when  the  Leopard  overhauled  her  at  sea.  He 
was  therefore  an  eye-witness  of  the  attack,  and  could,  if  need 
be,  describe  to  Monroe  precisely  what  took  place.  On  July 
seventh  Jefferson  and  his  Secretaries  decided  to  ask  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Yirginia  to  call  into  active  service  so  many  troops 
as  might  be  necessary  to  defend  Norfolk  and  the  gun-boats 

""protecting  Hampton.  With  this  he  stopped.  A  proclamation 
had  been  issued ;  gun-boats  had  been  put  in  commission ; 
troops  had  been  detached ;  a  day  had  been  fixed  for  the  assem- 
bling of  Congress ;  and  Dr.  Bullus  despatched  in  the  Revenge 
for  England.  He  would  do  no  more,  and,  till  the  effect  of 
these  peaceful  measures  was  known,  the  people  were  left  to 
cool  their  anger  and  read  such  pamphlets  as  the  hour  brought 
forth.* 

*  Peace  without  Dishonor — War  without  Hope.  Being  a  Calm  and  Dispas- 
sionate Enquiry  into  the  Question  of  the  Chesapeake  and  the  Necessity  and  Expe- 
diency of  War.  By  a  Yankee  Farmer.  Boston,  1807.  The  title  of  the  London 
edition  is  Peace  without  Dishonor,  War  without  Hope.  An  Argument  against 
War  with  Great  Britain,  recently  published  at  Boston.  By  an  American  Farmer. 
London,  1807.  The  Voice  of  Truth ;  or,  Thoughts  on  the  Affair  between  the 
Leopard  and  the  Chesapeake.  In  a  Letter  from  a  Gentleman  at  New  York  to  his 
Friend.  New  York,  1807.  Peace  or  War?  or,  Thoughts  on  our  Affairs  with 
England.  By  James  Cbeetham.  New  York,  1807.  An  Essay  on  the  Rights  and 
Duties  of  Nations  relative  to  Fugitives  from  Justice ;  considered  with  reference 
to  the  Affair  of  the  Chesapeake.  By  an  American.  Boston,  1807.  The  Tocsin  ; 
or,  The  Call  to  Arms !  An  Essay.  Being  an  Enquiry  into  the  Late  Proceedings 
of  Great  Britain  on  her  Unjustifiable  Attack  upon  the  Liberty  and  Independence 
of  the  United  States  of  America.  Charleston,  1807.  War  or  no  War?  Intro- 


1807.  WAE,   OK  NO  WAR?  265 

Never  before  had  any  one  event  in  our  history  called  forth 
so  many  pamphlets  in  so  short  a  time.  In  five  months  they 
numbered  seven,  and  the  burden  of  the  seven  was  war.  The 
purpose  of  some  was  to  convince  the  people  that  there  was  no 
hope  of  honorable  peace.  The  writers  of  others  labored  hard 
to  prove  that  no  cause  whatever  had  been  given  for  war. 
"  What,"  said  those  who  hated  Jefferson,  but,  like  him,  were 
eager  to  have  peace  preserved,  "  what  is  our  present  situation, 
and  what  are  the  causes  by  which  it  has  been  produced  ?  After 
twenty  years  of  preposterous  confidence  in  the  guardianship 
of  the  Atlantic  we  find  ourselves  called  on  to  take  measures  of 
self-defence.  We  use  not  the  language  of  despondency  when 
we  say  that  the  crisis  is  alarming.  The  enemy  with  his  war 
train  is  on  our  coast.  A  philosopher  is  at  the  helm  of  state. 
The  foe  menaces.  Yet  our  ports  are  unfortified  and  our  har- 
bors destitute  of  armed  ships.  To  revenge  the  outrages  inflicted 
on  us  is  certain  loss.  To  recede  from  the  support  of  our  rights 
is  indelible  dishonor.  Our  lives,  our  property  are  exposed  in 
the  one  case ;  our  reputation  for  spirit  and  independence  in 
the  other.  What  in  this  emergency  shall  we  do  ?  Do  the 
only  honorable  thing  that  can  be  done.  Acknowledge  that  we 
are  wrong,  and  destroy  the  prolific  parent  of  the  many  evils 
that  have  brought  us  to  this  embarrassed  state.  Need  it  be 
said  that  parent  is  our  system  of  naturalization  ?  Hardly  were 
our  present  rulers  warm  in  their  places  when  the  law  of  1Y98 
was  repealed,  the  limitation  of  fourteen  years  cut  down  to 
five,  and  the  power  of  naturalizing,  once  confined  to  United 
States  courts,  extended  to  every  petty  court  of  record  in  the 
Union.  Our  country  became,  in  the  language  of  Democrats, 
the  asylum  of  distressed  humanity,  which  is  the  new  name  for 
the  vagabonds  and  wandering  felons  of  the  universe.  Hordes 
of  vulgar  Irish  scarcely  advanced  to  the  threshold  of  civiliza- 
tion, all  the  outcast  villains,  all  the  excrescences  of  gouty  Eu- 

duced  with  a  View  of  the  Causes  of  Our  National  Decline  and  Present  Embarrass- 
ments. In  Two  Letters.  By  Lycurgus.  New  York,  1807.  An  Examination  of 
the  Conduct  of  Great  Britain  respecting  Neutrals.  Philadelphia,  1807.  Thoughts 
upon  the  Conduct  of  our  Administration  in  Relation  both  to  Great  Britain  and 
France,  more  especially  in  Reference  to  the  late  Negotiation  concerning  the  At- 
tack on  the  Chesapeake.  By  a  Friend  to  Peace.  Boston,  1808. 


266  FKEE  TRADE  AND  SAILOKS'  EIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvm. 

rope  instantly  descended  on  our  shores,  and,  by  the  aid  of  the 
new  machinery,  were  long  since  transformed  from  aliens  to 
natives;  from  slaves  to  citizens.  The  consequences  of  this 
haste  are  apparent.  Made  Americans  before  they  had  ceased 
to  be  Europeans,  given  the  rights  of  citizens  before  they  had 
forgotten  the  persecution  and  the  misery  that  drove  them  to 
us,  they  have  introduced  into  our  politics  the  savage  hatred 
which  they  feel  toward  the  country  they  have  left,  and,  in  the 
present  war  have  steadily,  nay,  almost  successfully,  labored  to 
throw  the  weight  of  the  United  States  into  the  scale  of  France. 
Great  Britain,  denying  the  right  of  her  subjects  to  expatriate 
themselves,  has  demanded  and  retaken  them  at  the  cannon's 
mouth.  Having  maintained  her  position  by  the  use  of  armed 
force,  it  is  now  for  us  to  say  whether  or  not  we  will  maintain 
our  position  by  the  same  means.  Shall  we  hazard  a  war? 
Dare  we  hazard  a  war  ?  We  have  three  thousand  soldiers  to 
defend  five  thousand  miles  of  frontier.  Our  tottering  forts 
are  more  dangerous  to  their  defenders  than  to  their  assailants. 
Our  gun-boats  would  not  be  formidable  to  a  frigate  run 
aground.  Our  merchant  marine  is  exposed  to  the  gigantic 
naval  force  of  England  in  every  sea.  Shall  we  incur  a  new 
debt,  restore  the  hateful  system  of  excise,  and  again  lay  direct 
taxes  on  lands  and  slaves  ?  And  if  laid,  how  will  the  taxes  be 
paid  ?  War  will  annihilate  our  commerce,  stop  our  revenue, 
and  ruin  our  merchants.  The  ruin  of  our  merchants  will 
break  the  city  banks  to  which  they  are  indebted.  The  small 
country  banks  will  follow,  and  the  farmers  who  hold  their  bills 
will  be  penniless.  Then,  indeed,  will  distress  be  universal. 
The  farmer  will  give  his  cattle  to  the  tax-gatherer ;  the  me- 
chanic will  be  forced  to  hang  up  his  rusty  tools ;  and  the  chil- 
dren of  the  fisherman  will  ask  for  bread  in  vain.  Think  not 
that  this  is  the  picture  of  a  fourth-of-July  orator.  This  is 
sober  reality.  And  we  are  asked  to  bring  this  misery  on  our- 
selves in  order  that  we  may  wage  war  for  the  protection  of 
British  deserters.  Ear  be  it  from  us  to  do  such  a  thing.  Let 
us  rather  repeal  our  naturalization  laws,  give  up  the  subjects 
of  England  when  lawfully  demanded,  and  establish  a  precedent 
which  some  day  will  be  of  use  to  us." 

"  War,"  said  the  pamphleteers  who  were  eager  to  see  the 


1807.  THE  PROCLAMATION  DISREGARDED.  267 

United  States  once  more  closely  allied  with  France,  "  war  is 
inevitable.  Great  Britain  has  done  an  unprovoked  act  which 
justifies  a  declaration.  She  will  undoubtedly  disavow  the 
claim  to  search  our  ships  of  war.  But  she  will  never  give  up 
the  claim  that  we  have  no  right  to  enlist  her  deserters  and 
naturalize  her  subjects.  She  will  still  contend  that  if  we  do 
enlist  them  she  will  retake  them  on  a  common  jurisdiction,  the 
high  sea.  This  we  must  resist  and  this  we  can  resist  success- 
fully. A  commercial  war  will  bring  her  to  our  feet.  We  can 
ruin  her  manufactures,  starve  her  colonies,  take  Canada  and 
Nova  Scotia,  and  make  peace  at  Halifax.  Her  power  to  in- 
jure us  is  trifling.  Our  revenue  for  a  time  will  be  lost.  But 
we  have  a  great  surplus  and  can  borrow  what  more  we  need. 
To  avoid  her  cruisers  when  they  are  striving  to  destroy  will 
be  no  more  difficult  than  it  is  to  shun  them  now  when  they 
are  bent  on  searching  our  merchantmen.  Our  export  trade 
will  suffer  little.  Much  of  what  is  now  imported  can  be  made 
at  home.  The  captures  by  our  privateers  will  supply  the  rest. 
It  is,  therefore,  nothing  short  of  treason  to  question  either  the 
necessity  or  the  expediency  of  war." 

Smarting  under  the  insult  and  heated  by  the  pamphlets 
they  read,  the  people  looked  upon  the  action  of  the  Govern- 
ment as  little  better  than  tame  submission.  That  it  would  be 
futile  was  plain  to  every  one.  To  a  service  whose  officers  had 
committed  with  impunity,  nay,  had  been  promoted  for  com- 
mitting the  outrages  which  have  preserved  to  our  day  the 
names  of  the  Cambrian,  the  Leander,  the  Driver,  and  the 
Leopard,  the  proclamation  of  Jefferson  must  have  been  im- 
mensely diverting.  It  can  not  be  possible  that  Jefferson  him- 
self for  one  moment  supposed  that  his  idle  threat  of  cutting 
off  water,  food,  and  friends  would  keep  the  feeblest  vessel  in 
the  English  navy  from  our  ports.  Nor  did  it.  All  through 
July  and  August  the  frigates  in  Lynnhaven  Bay  came  and  went 
as  it  pleased  them.  In  September  the  Jason  and  the  Colum- 
bine entered  the  harbor  of  New  York.  Anchoring  in  the 
lower  bay,  the  Jason  hailed  a  pilot-boat  passing  in  and  de- 
manded a  pilot,  and,  when  refused,  sent  an  armed  boat  in  pur- 
suit. Not  to  be  behind  her  consort  in  insolence,  the  Columbine 
fired  on  a  gun-boat  that  was  sailing  about,  brought  it  to,  and 


268  FKEE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    OHAP.  xvm. 

ordered  a  midshipman  to  come  on  board.  He  meekly  went. 
Hearing  of  the  presence  of  these  vessels  in  the  harbor,  the 
collector  sent  down  a  revenue  cutter  to  bid  them  depart.  The 
cutter,  dropping  anchor  near  the  Columbine,  was  ordered  off, 
and,  when  she  did  not  go,  was  boarded  and  searched.  This 
visit  to  New  York  was  dearly  paid  for  by  the  Englishmen. 
The  same  morning  the  cutter  was  boarded  the  barge  of  the 
Jason  came  up  the  bay,  and,  having  put  the  captain  ashore, 
pushed  off  into  the  stream.  Presently  a  man  appeared  on  the 
landing,  and  holding  up  a  letter  from  the  British  Consul,  the 
barge  was  rowed  in  to  get  it.  The  people  gathered  round, 
some  confusion  ensued,  and  six  sailors  leaped  ashore.  The 
crowd  cheered,  shouted  "  Run,  run ! "  and  the  seamen  were 
quickly  lost  to  view.  Their  escape  created  great  excitement 
in  the  crews  of  the  Jason  and  the  Columbine,  and  a  few  days 
thereafter,  while  an  officer  from  the  Columbine  was  searching 
a  pilot-boat,  the  men  who  rowed  his  barge  pulled  ashore  and 
made  their  way  to  the  city.  This  raised  the  excitement  to 
fever-heat,  and  sixty -five  men  on  the  Jason  rose  and  attempted 
to  desert.  The  officers  put  down  the  disturbance.  But  all 
discipline  was  at  an  end,  and  the  Jason  was  forced  to  quit  the 
station  and  make  for  Halifax  with  fifty  of  her  people  in  irons.* 
No  attention  was  paid  to  these  acts,  for  Jefferson  was  anx- 
iously waiting  the  return  of  the  Revenge. 

The  first  intimation  of  the  Chesapeake  affair  reached  Mon- 
roe on  the  twenty-fifth  of  July.  In  the  morning  of  that  day 
the  official  despatch  of  Admiral  Berkeley  was  delivered  to 
Canning,  and  a  note  at  once  addressed  to  Monroe.  A  trans- 
action, he  was  told,  had  occurred  off  the  American  coast. 
Could  the  American  Minister  give  any  particulars  ?  His 
Majesty's  government  were  truly  sorry  for  what  had  hap- 
pened, and,  should  the  British  officer  be  to  blame,  prompt  and 
efficient  reparation  should  be  made.  The  American  Minister 
was  amazed  at  what  he  read,  but  had  no  information  to  com- 
municate, and  received  none  till,  on  the  thirty-first  of  August, 
Dr.  Bullus  delivered  his  packet.  Though  ignorant  of  the 
wishes  of  his  own  government,  he  was  not  left  in  doubt  as  to 

*  True  American,  September  9,  180*7. 


1807.  FEELING  IN  ENGLAND.  269 

the  disposition  of  the  King  or  the  sentiments  of  the  British 
people.  Day  after  day  the  Morning  Post,  the  Times,  the 
Courier,  the  great  organs  of  Canning's  party,  abused  and  de- 
nounced America.  The  British  public  were  assured  that  we 
were  striking  at  the  vitals  of  her  commercial  existence ;  that 
we  were  disputing  her  supremacy,  humbling  her  naval  great- 
ness, degrading  her  in  the  eyes  of  Europe.  We  were  inveig- 
ling away  her  troops  and  seamen.  But  a  few  weeks'  blockade 
of  the  Delaware,  of  the  Chesapeake,  of  Boston  Harbor  would 
make  us  quickly  repent  our  puerile  conduct.  From  Canning 
he  learned  that  England  did  not  claim,  and  never  had  claimed, 
the  right  to  search  ships-of-war  for  deserters,  and  that  if  repa- 
ration were  due  it  should  be  made.  But  the  instructions  Mon-^ 
roe  now  received  from  the  hands  of  Dr.  Bullus  bade  him  go 
further.  ~Not  only  must  the  sailors  be  replaced  on  the  deck 
of  the  Chesapeake,  not  only  must  Admiral  Berkeley  be  re- 
called and  punished,  and  a  special  mission  sent  to  the  United 
States  to  announce  these  things,  but  American  seamen  must 
no  longer  be  impressed  from  merchant  ships.  Of  this  Canning 
would  hear  nothing.  The  right  had  existed  long  before 
United  States  existed,  had  not  been  impaired  by  the  acknowl- 
edgment of  oar  independence,  and  was  a  proper  attribute  of 
the  sovereignty  Great  Britain  had  for  ages  exercised  over  the 
sea.  To  discuss  at  the  same  time  the  question  of  her  right  to 
search  a  naval  ship,  and  the  question  of  her  right  to  search  a 
merchant  ship,  was  impossible.  On  this  point  the  instructions 
of  Monroe  were  positive ;  recollecting  the  fate  of  his  treaty, 
he  would  not  again  disobey  them.  When,  therefore,  on  the 
tenth  of  October,  Dr.  Bullus  departed  to  meet  the  Revenge  at 
Land's  End,  he  carried  with  him  the  disheartening  news  that 
on  the  affair  of  the  Chesapeake  all  negotiation  was  over. 

So  far  as  Monroe  was   concerned,  negotiation   of  every  j 
sort  was  over.     He  had  long  been  anxious  to  return  to  Yirx-* 
ginia,  and,  thinking  the  present  a  fit  time  to  do  so,  and,  acting 
on  permission  previously  obtained,  he  notified  Canning  of  his 
intention,  asked  for  a  farewell  audience  with  the  King,  turned 
over  his  books  and  papers  to  Pinkney,  and  departed  for  Ports- 
mouth.    Ere  this  he  was  informed  that  a  minister  would  be 
sent  to  the  United  States  to  adjust  the  Chesapeake  affair,  that 


270  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvin. 

George  Henry  Rose  had  been  selected  for  the  mission,  that 
Admiral  Berkeley  had  been  recalled  and  his  act  disavowed. 
Considering  the  feeling  toward  America  then  prevalent  in 
England,  such  a  concession  from  a  Tory  ministry  was  indeed 
a  great  one.  That  it  might  not  be  thought  too  great,  it  was 
promptly  followed  by  a  proclamation  recalling  English  seamen 
in  the  service  of  foreign  States.  Lest  they  should  not  obey, 
naval  officers  were  to  search  for  them  in  merchant  vessels,  and 
demand  them  from  the  captains  of  neutral  ships  of  war.  If 
found  in  the  crew  of  an  enemy's  ship,  they  were  guilty  of  high 
treason,  and  might  be  punished  with  death.* 

At  Portsmouth,  Monroe  was  detained  two  weeks  by  con- 
trary winds  which,  during  all  this  time,  blew  steadily  from 
the  west.  On  November  twelfth  the  wind  changed,  and  al- 
most at  the  same  moment  a  little  fleet  of  vessels  set  sail  for 
America.  From  Portsmouth  went  the  frigate  Statira,  with 
the  new  envoy  Rose  on  board,  and  the  Augustus  bearing  Mon- 
roe. The  destination  of  each  was  Norfolk.  From  Liverpool 
went  the  Edward  for  Boston,  and  the  Brutus  and  the  Indian 
Hunter  for  New  York,  with  London  newspapers  of  Novem- 
ber twelfth.  The  Pearl  sailed  from  the  Downs ;  the  Revenge, 
which  had  run  across  to  Cherbourg  for  despatches  from  Paris, 
was  already  on  her  way  home. 

The  despatches  she  bore  from  Armstrong  were  most  im- 
portant. The  Berlin  decree  of  November  twenty-first,  1806, 
had  been  speedily  followed  by  one  of  a  like  kind  issued  by  the 
King  of  Spain,f  and  every  Spanish  cruiser  had  since  been 
scouring  the  ocean,  capturing  American  merchantmen,  and 
sending  them  to  the  admiralty  courts  for  judgment.  What 
the  decision  would  be  was  doubtful,  for  it  depended  not  on 
the  will  of  the  Spanish  judges,  but  on  the  interpretation 
placed  on  the  Berlin  decree  in  France.  Hearing  that  the 
Spanish  Minister  had  applied  for  such  an  explanation  as  would 
enable  the  courts  to  pass  judgment  on  the  American  vessels, 
Armstrong  wrote  to  Champagny,  who  had  just  succeeded  Tal- 
leyrand. He  reminded  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  of  the 

*  American  State  Papers.     Foreign  Affairs,  vol.  iii,  p.  25. 
f  February  19,  1807. 


1807.  BERLIN  DECEEE  ENFORCED.  271 

treaty  of  1800,  and  demanded  that  the  Spanish  Minister  be 
told  that,  in  consequence  of  the  treaty,  American  ships  were 
exempt  from  the  Berlin  decree.  Champagny  referred  the  re- 
quest to  the  Minister  of  Marine,  who  referred  it  to  the  Pro- 
curer-General of  the  Council  of  Prizes,  who  referred  it  to 
Napoleon,  who  declared  American  ships  were  not  exempt,  and 
a  month  later  the  Council  of  Prizes  applied  his  ruling  in  the 
nasft  of  th ft, ship  TTnrignn. 

She  had  sailed  from  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1804,  bound  for  the  Island  of  Zanzibar,  and  had 
touched  in  turn  at  Goree,  the  river  de  la  Plata,  Buenos  Ayres, 
and  Montevideo.  There  the  idea  of  a  voyage  to  Zanzibar  was 
abandoned,  and,  taking  on  a  cargo  suitable  for  an  English 
market,  the  Horizon  set  sail  for  London.  Bad  weather  drove 
her  into  Lisbon  to  refit,  and  an  English  frigate  made  prize  of 
her  as  she  left  the  port.  Taken  to  England,  the  cargo  was 
confiscated  as  having  been  put  on  board  at  an  enemy's  colony ; 
but  the  vessel  was  released.  Procuring  another  cargo,  part  of 
which  was  of  English  make,  her  captain  started  back  to  Lisbon, 
but  was  overtaken  by  a  storm,  and  on  May  thirtieth,  1807,  was 
wrecked  on  the  Kanneyer  rocks,  near  Morlaix.  All  that  could 
be  saved  of  the  cargo  and  the  ship  were  sold  by  the  French 
authorities,  and  the  question  what  should  be  done  with  the 
money  came  up  for  settlement.  The  Horizon  had  not  been 
captured  at  sea,  neither  had  she  entered  a  port  of  France ;  she 
had  indeed  come  upon  the  coast,  but  she  came  unwillingly, 
and  after  making  every  possible  endeavor  to  keep  off.  How 
far,  then,  did  the  Berlin  decree  apply  ?  Did  it  apply  at  all  ? 
Unable  to  decide,  the  Administrators  of  Marine  at  Brest  asked 
the  Council  of  Prizes  at  Paris  to  do  so  for  them,  and  by  that 
tribunal  all  the  money  obtained  from  the  sale  of  the  English 
goods  in  the  cargo  was  confiscated  for  the  use  of  the  state ; 
the  rest  was  delivered  to  the  captain.  Armstrong  protested, 
but  the  Emperor  stood  firm.  "  Say  to  the  American  Minis-"^ 
ter,"  he  wrote,  "  that  since  America  suffers  her  vessels  to  be  I 
searched  she  adopts  the  principle  that  the  flag  does  not  cover  / 
the  goods,  and  that  as  she  submits  to  the  orders  in  council  of  j 
England,  so  she  must  submit  to  the  Berlin  decree  of  France."  I 
Merchant  ships  of  the  United  States  might,  so  far  as  the  de-/ 


272  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvm. 

•— • 

cree  was  concerned,  still  bring  the  products  of  our  country  to 
France ;  but  English  goods,  wherever  found,  and  by  whomso- 
ever owned,  were  fair  prize  of  war. 

It  was  not  for  Napoleon,  however,  to  say  what  should  and 
what  should  not  come  into  his  ports.  Great  Britain  ruled  the 
sea,  and  on  November  eleventh,  1807,  the  very  day  before 
Armstrong  sent  off  his  protest  against  the  Horizon  decree,  the 
King  in  council  approved  new  orders.  To  this  he  had  been 
led  by  a  series  of  events  which  broke  down  the  neutral  powers 
of  Europe.  Five  days  after  signing  the  Berlin  decree,  Napo- 
leon quit  that  city  and  began  his  campaign  against  Poland 
and  Russia.  He  was  all  but  defeated  at  Eylau  in  February, 
1807,  but  crushed  the  Russian  army  at  Friedland  in  June,  and 
signed  the  treaty  of  Tilsit  on  the  seventh  of  July.  This  left 
him  free  to  deal  with  European  neutrals  as  he  chose.  The 
only  neutrals  were  Denmark  and  Portugal,  and  to  these  he 
turned  his  attention  without  delay.  On  July  nineteenth  the 
King  of  Portugal  was  commanded  to  shut  his  ports  to  Eng- 
lish commerce  before  September  first.  On  July  twenty-ninth 
the  Prince  Royal  of  Denmark  was  bidden  to  choose  between 
war  with  England  and  war  with  France.  The  threat  was  no 
idle  one,  and  on  the  second  of  August,  Bernadotte,  at  Ham- 
burg, was  informed  that  if  England  did  not  accept  the  media- 
tion of  Russia,  Denmark  must  declare  war  on  England,  or 
France  would  make  war  on  Denmark.  On  August  seventeenth 
he  was  commanded  to  be  ready  to  move  into  Denmark  at  a 
moment's  notice  as  friend  or  foe.  But  the  moment  never 
came.  Napoleon  for  once  had  delayed  too  long,  and  before 
another  fortnight  went  round  Copenhagen  was  in  ashes,  Eng- 
land was  in  possession,  and  the  neutrality  of  Denmark  was 
gone.  Learning  from  secret  sources  what  was  happening  at 
Tilsit,  the  British  Ministry  were  convinced  that  the  Prince 
Royal  would  be  the  next  neutral  driven  to  attack  them.  They 
determined,  therefore,  to  strike  first,  and  on  July  twenty-sixth 
a  great  fleet  of  forty  frigates,  twenty  ships  of  the  line,  and 
transports  bearing  twenty-seven  thousand  troops  set  sail  for 
Copenhagen.  With  them  as  diplomatic  agent  went  Francis 
James  Jackson,  duly  instructed  to  demand  the  delivery  of  the 
whole  navy  of  Denmark  as  security  for  the  safety  of  England. 


1807.  COPENHAGEN  BOMBARDED.  273 

The  officers  and  crews  were  to  be  maintained  by  Great  Brit- 
ain, the  ships  kept  in  repair,  and,  when  peace  was  made,  re- 
turned in  as  good  condition  as  when  received.  The  demand 
was  rejected.  Lord  Gambier,  who  commanded  the  troops, 
landed  twenty  thousand,  planted  batteries,  and  for  three  days 
and  three  nights  Copenhagen  was  bombarded.  Then,  at  the 
end  of  the  third  day,  when  half  the  city  was  a  smoking  ruin, 
when  two  thousand  helpless  citizens  lay  dead  in  the  wreck  of 
what  had  once  been  their  homes,  the  fleet  was  given  up  to 
England.  The  seizure  of  every  Danish  merchantman  in  the 
ports  of  England  and  the  confiscation  of  their  cargoes  followed. 
Almost  at  the  same  time  the  Berlin  decree  began  to  be 
enforced  in  Holland.  With  the  connivance  of  Louis  Bona- 
parte a  brisk  trade  had  gone  on  between  his  kingdom  and 
England ;  but  Napoleon  now  gave  positive  orders  that  the 
trade  should  stop.  Louis  obeyed,  and  in  the  last  days  of 
August  every  neutral  ship  at  Amsterdam  was  seized  and  con- 
fiscated. Made  bold  by  the  seizure  of  the  Danish  fleet  and 
incensed  at  the  enforcement  of  the  Berlin  decree  in  Holland, 
Lord  Castlereagh  wrote  to  Spencer  Perceval,  begging  him  to 
retaliate  on  France.  Lord  Castlereagh  was  Secretary  of  War. 
Perceval  was  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  and,  taking  the 
suggestion,  drew  and  submitted  to  the  Cabinet  a  long  paper 
on  the  expediency  of  retaliation.  As  to  the  policy  of  such  a 
measure,  so  far  as  England  was  concerned,  there  could,  he 
thought,  be  no  doubt.  As  to  the  justice  of  such  a  measure,  so 
far  as  neutrals  were  concerned,  there  were  doubts;  but  he 
soon  swept  them  away.  In  the  first  place,  no  neutral  had  a 
right  to  complain  of  a  commercial  restriction  laid  by  one 
belligerent  on  another  unless  that  restriction  was  expressly  in- 
tended to  ruin  neutral  commerce.  This  he  did  not  propose  to 
do.  In  the  second  place,  there  were  no  neutrals.  The  United 
States,  indeed,  claimed  to  be  neutral.  But  she  had  lost  that 
character  by  failing  to  observe  the  impartiality  toward  bellig- 
erents which  is  the  soul  of  neutrality;  by  demanding  that 
Great  Britain  should  respect  rules  and  usages  she  could  not 
enforce  against  France ;  and  by  submitting  quietly  to  the  Ber- 
lin decree.  Having  thus  established  the  justice  of  retaliation, 
Perceval  went  on  to  define  the  kind.  He  would  still  permit 

VOL.  III. — 19 


274:  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  zvm. 

neutrals  to  carry  their  own  goods  in  their  own  ships  directly 
from  their  own  ports  to  an  enemy's  ports  or  colonies.  He 
would  still  permit  neutrals  to  bring  back  an  enemy's  goods 
from  an  enemy's  ports  directly  to  their  own  country.  But 
all  trade  between  Europe  and  the  colonies  of  France  and  her 
allies  must,  even  in  neutral  bottoms,  go  on  through  the  ports 
and  under  the  license  of  England. 

For  a  month  his  paper  passed  from  member  to  member  of 
the  Cabinet  for  criticism.  Then,  greatly  modified  and  reduced 
to  the  form  of  an  order,  it  was  solemnly  approved  by  the 
King  in  council.  Whereas,  the  order  began,  Napoleon  has  de- 
clared the  British  Islands  in  a  state  of  blockade,  has  declared 
all  merchandise  of  English  make  to  be  lawful  prize,  and  has 
forced  nations  in  alliance  with  him  to  issue  like  decrees ;  and 
whereas  the  orders  in  council  of  January  seventh,  1807,  have 
not  compelled  Napoleon  to  recall  his  decrees,  nor  induced  neu- 
trals to  interpose  to  secure  their  revocation,  therefore  it  has 
pleased  his  Majesty  to  order  that  all  ports  and  places  of  France, 
of  her  allies,  of  any  country  at  war  with  England,  nay,  of  all 
the  ports  in  Europe  from  which,  for  any  reason,  the  British 
flag  is  excluded,  and  all  the  ports  of  the  colonies  belonging  to 
the  enemies  of  England  are  shut  to  trade  and  navigation  except 
under  such  conditions  as  his  Majesty  may  provide.  Another 
order  of  the  same  date  made  these  conditions  clear.  In  plain 
language,  they  were  that  all  commerce  between  a  country  at 
amity  and  a  country  at  war  with  Great  Britain  must  enter  at 
some  port  of  the  United  Kingdom,  or  at  Gibraltar  or  Malta, 
pay  a  certain  duty,  and  take  out  a  British  license  to  trade. 

Though  the  orders  were  approved  on  November  eleventh, 
they  were  not  made  public  till  November  fourteenth.  That 
they  were  in  existence  was  no  secret,  and  in  the  London  news- 
papers of  the  tenth,  the  eleventh,  and  twelfth  of  the  month 
were  positive  statements  that  they  were  ready  for  signature, 
and  that  their  purpose  was  to  put  France  and  all  her  vassal 
kingdoms  in  a  state  of  siege.  One  journal  was  so  correctly 
informed  as  to  be  able  to  announce,  and  to  announce  truly, 
that  they  would  appear  in  the  London  Gazette  of  November 
fourteenth. 

On  that  day,  unhappily,  every  one  of  the  little  fleet  of  lately 


1807.  EUROPEAN  NEWS.  275 

wind-bound  vessels  was  at  sea,  and  many  a  week  went  by  be- 
fore a  copy  of  the  orders  reached  the  United  States.  But  the 
news  the  fleet  did  bring  was  bad  enough.  On  December 
twelfth  the  Revenge  passed  through  the  Narrows  and  landed 
Dr.  Bullus  at  New  York.  Word  of  her  arrival  spread  fast, 
and  the  captain  and  crew  were  soon  beset  for  the  latest  news 
from  England  and  France.  All  that  could  be  told  were  such 
idle  rumors  as  passed  current  at  Cherbourg  six  weeks  before ; 
that  Napoleon  had  declared  there  should  be  no  neutrals  ;  that 
we  must  soon  fight,  and  that  if  we  joined  the  French,  Napo- 
leon would  guarantee  to  us  the  cession  of  Canada  and  Nova 
Scotia  at  the  peace.  Concerning  what  was  in  the  English 
despatches  nothing  could  be  learned,  for,  without  an  hour's 
delay,  Dr.  Bullus  had  crossed  the  river  to  Paulus  Hook  and 
taken  horse  for  Washington. 

As  he  rode  away,  the  Edward,  bearing  news  quite  as  im- 
portant and  very  much  later  than  his,  reached  Boston.  She 
had  made  the  run  from  Liverpool  in  the  wonderful  time  of 
twenty-eight  days,  and  carried  letters  and  newspapers  dated 
November  tenth.  The  newspapers  announced  that  new  orders 
in  council  were  soon  to  issue,  that  a  new  blockade  was  to  be 
laid,  and  that  neutrals  were  to  be  shut  out  from  every  port  on 
the  face  of  the  earth  into  which  English  vessels  could  not 
enter.  Just  when  these  things  would  happen  the  writers  did 
not  know. 

From  Boston  these  alarming  tidings  were  carried  to  New 
York  by  four  express  riders,  and  from  New  York  were  sent 
post-haste  to  Washington,  where,  a  few  days  before,  Dr.  Bullus 
had  delivered  his  packet  to  Madison.  On  the  thirteenth  the 
Augusta,  with  Monroe  on  board,  reached  Norfolk.  On  the 
evening  of  the  fourteenth  the  Brutus,  with  English  news- 
papers of  November  eleventh,  and  the  Indian  Hunter,  with 
newspapers  of  the  twelfth,  arrived  at  New  York.  The  news 
their  captains  brought  merely  confirmed  what  was  already 
known — that  a  special  envoy  was  on  his  way  to  the  Unitec 
States,  and  that  a  new  attack  had  most  probably  already  been 
made  on  American  commerce.  Yet  even  this  was  gratefully 
received  by  the  friends  of  Government ;  for  on  that  day  the 
Non-importation  Act  went  into  force,  and  a  long  list  of  British 


276  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvm. 

goods  ceased  to  be  imported.  Whatever  tended  to  strengthen 
the  belief  that  England  had  once  more  laid  a  sweeping  re- 
striction on  our  foreign  trade  did  much  to  help  them  in  their 
efforts  to  persuade  the  merchants  that  non-importation  was  a 
wise  and  greatly  needed  measure. 

By  Jefferson  the  despatches  and  newspapers  which  thus 
came  in  upon  him  day  after  day  were  received  with  astonish- 
ment, and  when  on  the  seventeenth  formal  notification  of  the 
King's  proclamation  recalling  seamen  reached  him,  he  instant- 
ly assembled  the  Secretaries.    Seizing  a  piece  of  loose  paper,  he 
hastily  wrote  down  the  substance  of  a  message  to  Congress. 
/He  told  the  two  Houses  of  the  determination  of  Napoleon  to 
!  enforce  the  Berlin  decree ;  he  declared  that  new  orders  in 
•  council  were  soon  to  issue ;  pointed  out  that  the  whole  world 
]  would  thus  be  laid  under  interdict  by  England  and  France ; 
j  and  asked,  if  our  ships,  our  sailors,  and  our  goods  were  to  be 
/  seized  the  moment  they  left  our  harbor,' was  it  not  better  to 
I—keep  them  at  home  ?     In  a  word,  he  proposed  an  embargo. 
Of  this  every  member  of  the  Cabinet  approved.     But,  as  the 
proposed  message  made  mention  of  facts  that  could  not  be 
supported  by  documentary  proof,  Madison  suggested  a  change, 
and  wrote  out  in  pencil  a  short  message  which  was  at  once 
adopted.    He  based  it  on  the  letter  of  the  Grand  Judge,  Regnier, 
to  Champagny,  announcing  the  determination  of  Napoleon  to 
enforce  the  Berlin  decree,  and  on  the  proclamation  of  the  King 
recalling  British  sailors  serving  in  foreign  ships,  a  copy  of 
which  he  cut  from  the  National  Intelligencer  of  that  morn- 
ing.    These  communications,  he  wrote,  would  show  the  great 
and  increasing  dangers  to  which  our  goods,  our  ships,  and  our 
sailors  were  exposed  on  the  high  seas,  and  the  many  advan- 
tages to  be  expected  from  an  embargo,  or,  as  he  expressed  it, 
"  an  immediate  inhibition  of  the  departure  of  our  vessels  from 
the  ports  of  the  United  States."     As  the  usual  hour  for  the 
adjournment  of  Congress  had  long  passed  when  the  message 
was  approved,  it  could  not  be  sent  that  day,  and  the  Secre- 
taries went  back  to  their  homes. 

Nothing  was  said  in  the  message  regarding  the  length  of 
time  for  which  the  restriction  should  be  laid.  To  Gallatin 
this  omission  gave  great  concern,  and  he  passed  the  early 


180T.  AN  EMBAKGO   PROPOSED.  277 

hours  of  tlie  following  morning  in  writing  a  remonstrance, 
which  reached  Jefferson  almost  as  soon  as  he  had  breakfasted. 
Gallatin  reminded  him  that  Government  prohibitions  always 
did  far  more  mischief  than  could  ever  be  foreseen ;  that  a  wise 
statesman  would  think  well  before  he  undertook  to  regulate 
the  affairs  of  individuals ;  that  the  proposed  embargo  was  of 
doubtful  policy ;  that  it  had  been  approved  hastily,  on  the 
first  view  of  our  foreign  relations,  based  on  very  imperfect 
information,  and  that  on  the  negotiations  with  Rose  or  the 
future  conduct  of  England  it  would  not  have  the  smallest 
influence.  But,  if  there  must  be  an  embargo,  let  it  be  for  a 
short  time.  "War,  with  all  the  privations,  with  all  the  suffer- 
ings, with  all  the  loss  of  revenue  it  would  bring,  was  better 
than  a  lasting  embargo.*  By  ten  o'clock  the  Secretaries  were 
again  assembled,  f  and  the  letter  of  Gallatin  read.  But  they 
would  not  oppose  the  wishes  of  Jefferson,  and  when  Congress 
met  at  noon  the  message,  as  Madison  wrote  it,  and  a  packet  of 
documents,  were  sent  down  by  messenger. 

In  the  bundle  of  papers  were  a  copy  of  the  new  interpre- 
tation of  the  Berlin  decree ;  the  correspondence  between  Arm- 
strong and  Champagny  on  the  subject  of  the  interpretation ; 
the  protest  of  Armstrong  against  the  condemnation  of  the 
cargo  of  the  Horizon ;  and  the  newspaper  clipping  giving  the 
proclamation  of  the  King  recalling  English  seamen  from  the 
service  of  foreign  states. 

In  the  Senate  business  was  instantly  stopped ;  the  doors 
were  closed ;  the  message  and  the  papers  heard  with  attention, 
and  at  once  sent  to  a  committee  of  five.  No  sooner  was  the 
committee  formed  than  the  chairman  asked  for  leave  to  bring 
in  a  bill.  Leave  was  granted,  and  a  few  minutes  later  the  bill 
was  presented.:}:  The  rule  requiring  the  three  readings  to  take 
place  on  three  different  days  was  then  suspended,  and,  four 
hours  later,  a  bill  laying  an  embargo  on  all  the  shipping  in  the 

*  Gallatin  to  Jefferson,  December  18,  1807.  Gallatin's  Writings,  vol.  i,  p. 
368. 

f  Jefferson  to  Gallatin,  December  18,  1807.  Gallatin's  Writings,  vol.  i,  p. 
369. 

J  What  took  place  in  committee  is  told  by  John  Q.  Adams  in  his  Diary,  vol. 
i,  p.  491,  December  18,  1807. 


278  FREE  TRADE  AND  SAILORS'  RIGHTS.    CHAP.  xvm. 

ports  of  the  United  States  was  on  its  way  to  the  House  of 
Representatives.  There  the  zeal  of  the  Republicans  was  quite 
as  strong,  but  their  haste  was  less.  When  the  message  of  the 
President  came  down  to  the  House,  the  members  were  debat- 
ing an  amendment  to  a  bill  to  fortify  the  ports  and  harbors. 
But  business  was  postponed,  the  gallery  cleared,  and  the  docu- 
ments read  by  the  clerk.  When  he  finished,  Randolph  moved 
to  lay  an  embargo  on  all  ships  belonging  to  citizens  of  the 
United  States.  A  warm  debate  followed,  and  in  the  midst 
of  it  the  Secretary  of  the  Senate,  with  the  bill  in  his  hand, 
knocked  at  the  door  of  the  House.  Randolph's  resolution  was 
at  once  tabled,  the  Senate  bill  read,  and  debate  upon  it  begun. 
The  House  was  in  secret  session.  No  report  of  what  was  said 
has,  therefore,  been  preserved  for  us.  But  the  meagre  entries 
in  the  journal  show  that  the  discussion  went  on  all  day  Friday 
and  all  day  Saturday  and  part  of  Monday.  Then  the  voting 
began,  and,  when  amendment  after  amendment  to  exempt  fish- 
ing vessels,  to  declare  that  the  act  contravened  no  treaty 
rights,  to  limit  the  embargo  to  sixty  days,  had  been  offered 
and  rejected,  the  House  long  after  midnight  passed  the  bill. 
The  yeas  were  eighty-two  and  the  nays  forty-four.  Later  in 
"the  day  some  verbal  changes  were  accepted  by  the  Senate,  the 
'act  promptly  signed  by  the  President,  and  on  Tuesday,  De- 
cember twenty-second,  1807,  an  embargo,  unlimited  as  to  time, 
was  in  force. 


1807.  TIDINGS  OF  THE  EMBARGO.  279 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE   LONG   EMBARGO. 

THE  embargo  had  not  been  many  minutes  in  force  when 
express-riders  were  galloping  out  of  Washington  and  riding 
post-haste  toward  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  and  New  York, 
with  orders  from  Gallatin  to  the  collectors.  Speed  was  most 
necessary,  and  so  well  did  the  messengers  perform  their  task 
that  at  five  o'clock  on  Friday  morning  one  of  them  crossed 
the  ferry  from  Paulus  Hook  and  roused  the  Collector  of  the 
port  of  New  York  from  his  slumbers.  The  nearest  Republi- 
can printer  was  sought,  and  by  seven  o'clock  copies  of  the  law 
in  the  form  of  handbills  were  distributed  about  the  streets. 
Then  followed  a  scene  which  to  men  not  engaged  in  commerce 
was  comical.  On  a  sudden  the  streets  were  full  of  merchants, 
ship-owners,  ship-captains,  supercargoes,  and  sailors  hurry- 
ing toward  the  water-front.  Astonished  at  this  unusual  com- 
motion, men  of  all  sorts  followed,  and  by  eight  o'clock  the 
wharves  were  crowded  with  spectators,  cheering  the  little  fleet 
of  half -laden  ships  which,  with  all  sail  spread,  was  beating  down 
the  harbor.  None  of  them  had  clearances.  Many  were  half- 
manned.  Few  had  more  than  part  of  a  cargo.  One  which 
had  just  come  in,  rather  than  be  embargoed,  went  off  without 
breaking  bulk.  At  the  sight  of  the  headings  of  the  handbills, 
the  captains  made  crews  of  the  first  seamen  they  met,  and,  with 
a  few  hurried  instructions  from  the  owners,  pushed  into  the 
stream.  That  the  Collector  was  slack  is  not  unlikely,  for  it 
was  ten  o'clock  before  his  boats  were  in  pursuit. 

The  act  did  not  apply  to  American  vessels  sailing  from") 
port  to  port  along  the  coast  of  the  United  States ;  nor  to  for-  / 
eign  merchantmen  in  ballast ;  nor  to  foreign  armed  vessels  in  / 


280  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

commission  ;  but  it  absolutely  forbade  registered  or  sea-letter 
vessels  to  leave  the  ports  of  the  United  States  for  those  of  any 
foreign  power.  Such  vessels  might,  however,  engage  in  the 
coasting  trade.  If  they  did,  bonds  equal  to  twice  the  value  of 
ship  and  cargo  must  be  given  as  security  that  the  cargo  would 
really  be  landed  in  the  United  States. 

On  licensed  ships  engaged  in  the  coasting  trade  the  em- 
bargo law  laid  no  restraint.  They  were  still  at  liberty  to  load 
and  sail.  No  Custom-House  officers  watched  them  day  and 
night.  No  inspection  was  made  of  their  cargoes.  No  bond 
was  required  as  surety  that  the  cargo  should  even  be  landed 
in  the  United  States.  The  advantages  to  which  this  might  be 
turned  were  quickly  seen.  Indeed,  the  law  was  scarcely 
known  when  captains  and  owners  of  ships  employed  in  the 
foreign  trade  were  hurrying  to  the  Custom-House  to  give  up 
their  ship  registers  and  take  out  licenses  to  trade  along  the 
— coast.  A  cargo  of  provisions  would  then  be  hurried  on  board, 
all  sail  spread  for  Eastport  or  New  Orleans,  and,  under  pre- 
tence of  being  blown  off  the  coast,  the  captain  would  make  for 
Halifax,  St.  Kitts,  or  Basse-Terre.  And  for  this  offence  no 
punishment  whatever  was  provided. 

In  Philadelphia  on  the  Sunday  following  the  laying  of  the 
embargo  the  streets  and  wharves  along  the  Delaware  front 
were  as  crowded  as  on  a  busy  week-day.  From  every  direc- 
tion came  drays,  wagons,  barges,  and  floats  laden  with  flour 
and  food  to  be  carried  to  the  West  Indies  by  the  pretended 
coasters.  Such  was  the  demand  that  the  cost  of  flour  rose  a 
dollar  and  a  half  on  a  barrel,  and  the  cost  of  bacon  seven 
cents  on  the  pound.  Gallatin,  in  alarm,  bade  the  Collector  at 
Philadelphia  exchange  no  more  registers  for  coasting  licenses, 
.^and,  when  the  cargo  seemed  fitted  for  a  foreign  port,  hold 
/  the  ship.  Yet  the  trade  went  merrily  on  till  Congress  passed 
a  supplementary  act  to  amend  the  faults  of  the  first. 

One  section  of  this  forbade  a  coaster  to  obtain  a  clearance 
till  the  owner,  or  the  freighter,  or  the  consignee,  or  the  agent 
had  given  bonds  to  twice  the  value  of  ship  and  cargo  that  the 
goods  should  be  relanded  in  the  United  States.  By  another 
section  river  craft  and  boats  accustomed  to  ply  the  harbors, 
bays,  and  sounds  were  required  to  give  a  general  bond  of  three 


1808.  FIRST  SUPPLEMENTARY  ACT.  281 

hundred  dollars  a  ton  not  to  engage  in  foreign  trade.  Another 
fixed  the  penalty  for  breaking  the  embargo  at  forfeiture  of 
ship  and  goods,  or,  if  they  could  not  be  seized,  mulct  the  owner 
of  twice  the  value,  and  fined  the  master  and  all  engaged  at  any 
sum  from  one  to  twenty  thousand  dollars.  Another  related  to 
fishers  and  whalers.  While  the  bill  was  still  before  the  House 
an  attempt  was  made  to  have  them  exempted  from  the  law. 
The  purpose  of  the  embargo,  it  was  said,  was  to  protect  Ameri- 
can merchant  ships  and  sailors  from  capture  by  foreign  pow- 
ers, and  to  force  a  repeal  of  commercial  restrictions  by  cutting 
off  all  trade.  But  the  fishermen  of  New  England  were  not 
in  danger  of  being  captured  and  were  not  engaged  in  trade. 
They  were  producers,  and  to  force  them  to  travel  fifty  or 
sixty  miles  each  week  to  get  a  permit  to  chase  a  whale  or  drag 
a  net  was  as  unjust  as  it  would  be  to  force  a  farmer  to  take 
out  a  license  to  sow  flaxseed  or  reap  wheat.  The  Republicans 
admitted  the  hardship,  but  insisted  that  it  must  be  borne. 
"Wlien,  said  they,  the  embargo  was  laid  no  hindrance  was  put 
on  coasters,  and  immediately  the  merchants  began  to  turn 
registered  ships  into  coasters  and  evade  the  law.  If  no  restric- 
tion is  now  put  on  the  fishermen,  every  coaster  will  soon  be  a 
whaler  or  a  fishing  schooner,  and,  loaded  with  very  little  tackle 
and  a  most  astonishing  amount  of  food,  will  be  on  its  way  to 
Halifax  or  St.  John's.  The  most  that  could  be  obtained  was 
permission  that  bonds  equal  to  four  times  the  value  of  the  ship 
and  fishing  tackle  should  be  given  not  to  touch  at  any  foreign 
port  during  the  voyage  and  to  bring  back  all  the  catch  to  the 
United  States.  In  this  shape  the  President  signed  the  bill  on 
the  eighth  of  January,  1808.  One  week  later  the  new  envoy 
from  England  presented  himself  at  "Washington. 


As  his  mission  was  from  the  first  designed  to  insult  and 
not  to  appease  the  United  States,  he  began  his  career  before 
he  landed.  In  October,  Canning  had  asked  Monroe  if  the 
proclamation  excluding  British  ships-of-war  would  apply  to  a 
frigate  with  Eose  on  board.  Armed  ships  bearing  despatches 
or  coming  on  public  business  had  been  expressly  exempted, 
and  to  this  fact  Monroe  in  his  answer  called  attention.  But 
Canning  chose  to  disbelieve  him,  and  commanded  the  envoy, 
if  any  attempt  were  made  to  send  the  Statira  out  of  American 


282  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

waters,  to  enter  a  protest  and  return  to  England.  On  Decem- 
ber twenty-sixth  the  frigate  anchored  in  Hampton  Roads. 
No  order  was  given  for  her  to  depart.  Yet  Rose  had  the 
effrontery  to  pretend  that  he  was  in  hourly  fear  of  being  sent 
off ;  that  he  could  not  land  till  a  safe  conduct  was  sent  him ; 
and  two  weeks  were  trifled  away  while  notes  and  explanations 
came  and  went  between  Norfolk  and  Washington.  At  last  he 
ventured  to  risk  the  journey,  and  on  January  sixteenth  was 

/formally  received  by  Jefferson.  Canning  had  instructed  him 
on  no  account  to  begin  negotiations  till  he  had  secured  the 
recall  of  the  proclamation  of  July  second,  1807.  When  this 
was  done  he  was  to  say  that  Admiral  Berkeley  had  been  re- 
called ;  that  the  attack  on  the  Chesapeake  was  disavowed ;  that 
the  men  taken  would  be  discharged,  and  that  provision  suit- 
able to  their  station  in  life  would  be  made  for  the  widows  and 
children  of  the  sailors  slain  in  the  attack.  In  return  for  these 
concessions  the  United  States  must  disavow  the  act  of  Com- 
modore Barren  in  encouraging  deserters,  keeping  them  in  his 
ship,  and  denying  that  they  were  there;  acts  he  had  never 

^committed.  At  his  first  official  interview  with  Madison,  which 
took  place  the  same  day  he  was  presented  to  Jefferson,  Rose 
explicitly  stated  that  nothing  could  be  done  until  the  procla- 
mation had  been  recalled.  Had  the  administration  been  truly 
patriotic,  had  it  been  truly  devoted  to  the  honor,  the  dignity, 
and  the  welfare  of  the  country,  Rose  would  have  been  flatly 
told  that  his  demand  could  not  be  listened  to  for  a  moment, 
and  would  have  been  wished  a  safe  and  pleasant  journey  home. 
But  Jefferson  was  devoted  to  the  preservation  of  his  popu- 
larity. The  Secretaries  were  devoted  to  Jefferson,  and,  to  help 
him,  willingly  entered  on  a  course  of  conduct  worthy  of  Burr. 
Madison  consented  to  keep  up  the  pretence  of  negotiation  by 
interviews,  and  while  he  did  so  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  was 
sent  by  Jefferson  to  explain  the  real  situation  to  Rose  and  beg 
hard  for  mercy.  The  envoy  was  told  that  the  proclamation 
could  not  be  recalled  without  good  reason,  because  it  would 
expose  the  President  to  the  charge  of  inconsistency  and  of 
disregarding  the  national  honor,  and  because  it  would  greatly 
damage  his  popularity,  which  was  very  dear  to  him.  Rose 
was  then  asked  to  make  known  just  enough  of  the  conditions 


1808.  THE  MISSION  OF  KOSE.  283 

on  which  reparation  would  be  made  to  enable  the  President 
to  recall  his  proclamation  without  shame.  He  was  assured  at 
the  same  time  that,  in  any  event,  even  if  there  were  no  repa- 
ration, the  United  States  would  not  declare  war,  but  merely 
continue  the  embargo.  When,  in  the  language  of  Rose,  he 
had  found  out  "  the  utmost  point  to  which  "  the  administra- 
tion "  would  go,"  he  stated  to  Madison  the  overtures  that  had 
been  made  to  him ;  was  informed  that  the  President  knew  all, 
and  was  again  implored  to  make  it  possible  for  Jefferson  to 
comply  with  the  demand.  For  a  while  he  stood  firm.  But 
about  the  first  of  February  he  was  fold  by  Madison  that  if  he 
would  make  an  inf  ormal  disclosure  of  his  instructions  it  would 
be  possible  to  comply  with  the  demand.  The  plan  was  to 
draw  up  a  new  proclamation  in  such  terms  as  Rose  might  dic- 
tate, recalling  that  of  July,  1807,  to  have  it  signed  and  sealed 
by  Jefferson,  to  date  it  the  day  the  question  was  settled,  deliver 
it  to  Rose,  and  then  sign  the  papers  providing  reparation  for 
the  Chesapeake  affair.  With  solemn  assurances  given  and  re- 
ceived that  the  disclosure  was  to  be  most  informal,  and  that  if 
nothing  came  of  it,  the  negotiation  was  to  go  on  as  if  the 
instructions  had  not  been  seen,  Rose  consented.  The  procla- 
mation was  then  framed  by  Rose,  Erskine,  and  Madison,  and 
accepted.  But  when  the  instructions  of  Canning  began  to  be 
revealed,  when  it  came  out  that  acts  never  done  by  Barren 
must  be  disavowed,  an  obstacle  was  raised  which  no  abase- 
ment could  surmount.  Nothing  was  left  but  to  forget  the 
informal  disclosure  and  go  back  to  the  usual  course  of  nego- 
tiation. Failure  ensued,  and  on  March  twenty- first  Rose  took! 
formal  leave.  — * 

As  he  was  about  to  depart  he  received  from  Pickering  a 
bundle  of  letters  that  did  no  credit  to  the  heads  and  hearts  of 
the  factious  men  who  wrote  them.  The  passage  of  the  em- 
bargo, and  above  all  the  secrecy,  the  mystery,  the  speed  which 
attended  its  passage,  had  convinced  Pickering  that  it  was  a 
French  measure  designed  for  the  sole  and  only  purpose  of 
provoking  England  to  war.  Should  such  a  war  be  declared, 
the  commercial  States  would  be  the  chief  sufferers  and  the 
Republicans  the  chief  gainers ;  for  no  one  could  doubt  that 
at  the  very  first  moment  of  real  danger  the  people  would 


284  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

rally  to  support  the  Government  and  defend  the  flag ;  and 
that  from  the  day  the  first  blood  was  shed  the  old  hatred  of 
England  would  be  revived,  and  revived  with  an  intensity  such 
as  the  efforts  of  a  whole  generation  could  not  allay.  But  the 
United  States  would  never  declare  the  war.  England  must  be- 
gin it.  Should  England,  therefore,  be  patient  a  little  longer, 
should  she  bear  with  a  few  more  insults,  a  few  more  restrictive 
measures,  the  violence  of  the  Republicans  in  their  efforts  to 
drive  her  into  war  would  recoil  on  themselves.  The  people 
would  be  hurt  by  their  own  weapons,  and,  goaded  on  by  the 
insults  and  injuries  offered  by  France,  they  would  turn  on  the 
administration  and  drive  the  Republicans  from  office.  Then 
the  Federalists  would  come  back  to  power,  and  the  interests 
of  the  United  States  would  be  identified  with  the  interests  of 
Great  Britain. 

The  task  which  Pickering  thus  set  himself  to  perform  was 
to  induce  Rose  to  persuade  Canning  to  let  the  United  States 
alone.  In  doing  this,  Pickering  deliberately  and  knowingly 
violated  a  statute  of  the  United  States.  Ten  years  before,  in 
the  excitement  which  followed  the  publication  of  the  X.  Y.  Z. 
despatches,  Dr.  George  Logan  had  gone  to  Paris  and  had 
there  attempted  to  do  with  Talleyrand  just  what  Pickering 
was  about  to  attempt  with  Rose.*  Pickering  was  then  Sec- 
retary of  State,  and  so  incensed  was  he  at  the  meddling  of 
Logan  that  at  his  request  the  famous  "  Logan  Act "  was  passed 
by  Congress,  f  and,  slightly  modified,  is  the  law  to-day.  %  If 
the  offence  of  Logan  was  so  serious  as  to  call  for  special  legis- 
lation, the  offence  of  Pickering  was  tenfold  greater.  But  he 
cared  not  for  laws  even  of  his  own  making,  and  proceeded  to 
violate  the  statute  in  every  point.  There  was  not  an  act  which 
it  forbade  that  he  left  undone.  He  "  began "  and  "  carried 

*  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,  vol.  ii,  pp.  409,  410,  4]  5,  416. 

f  Act  of  January  30,  1799.     Annals  of  Congress,  1797-'99,  p.  S795. 

|  Revised  Statutes  of  the  United  States,  section  5335.  The  first  violation  of 
this  statute  was  in  1804,  when  the  Republican  lawyers  Rawle,  McKean,  Ingersoll, 
and  Duponceau  pave  an  opinion  to  Yrujo.  Madison  to  Pinckncy,  February  6, 
1804.  MSS.  Instructions  to  Ministers.  Wharton's  International  Law,  g  109. 
History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,  vol.  iii,  pp.  85,  36.  Yet  another  vio- 
lation occurred  in  1861.  Mr.  Bunch,  British  Consul  at  Charleston,  South  Carolina, 
urged  his  Government  to  recognize  the  Confederacy.  His  exequatur  was  revoked. 


1808.  PICKERING  AND   "THE  LOGAN  ACT."  285 

on "  with  the  "  agent "  of  "  a  foreign  government,"  both  by 
word  of  mouth  and  by  letter,  "  intercourse  "  and  "  correspond- 
ence "  with  the  intent "  to  defeat "  what  he  believed  to  be  "  the 
measures  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States,"  and  he 
ought  by  the  provisions  of  that  law  to  have  been  fined  five 
thousand  dollars  and  imprisoned  three  years.  Again  and  again 
he  assured  Rose  that,  eager  as  the  United  States  seemed  to  pro- 
voke a  war,  she  had  no  desire  to  declare  one ;  and  that,  even 
if  his  mission  did  end  in  failure,  the  true  policy  of  England 
was  still  "  tos  let  us  alone  ;  to  bear  patiently  the  wrongs  we  do 
ourselves  "  ;  "  to  maintain  a  dignified  composure,  and  to  ab- 
stain from  war."  *  When  at  last  the  mission  did  end  in  fail- 
ure, and  Rose  was  about  to  go  home,  Pickering  sent  him  let- 
ters from  George  Cabot  and  Rufus  King  to  prove  that  this 
opinion  was  held  "  by  our  own  best  citizens,"  f  and  asked  that 
Samuel  Williams,  of  London,  be  made  "  the  medium  of  what- 
ever epistolary  intercourse  may  take  place  between  you  and 
me."  ^  How  well  this  attempt  succeeded  is  made  known  by 
the  letters  Rose  sent  back  to  Pickering  and  by  the  long  de- 
spatches he  wrote  home  to  Canning.  In  them  the  suggestions 
— nay,  almost  the  very  words  of  the  Massachusetts  Senator — 
are  repeated  and  urged  on  the  English  Minister. 

Had  Canning  doubted  the  sincerity  of  the  Federal  leaders 
in  their  professions  of  a  desire  for  peace,  his  doubts  might 
well  have  been  removed  by  letters  which  almost  at  the  same 
time  came  to  him  from  a  most  unexpected  source.  There 
was  then  living  in  Montreal  a  gentleman  named  John  Henry. 
He  had  once  lived  in  the  United  States,  and  still  had  an 
agent  at  Boston.  Like  thousands  of  other  men  all  over  the 
country,  the  business  of  this  agent  was  nearly  ruined  by  the 
embargo,  and  Henry  was  forced  to  hurry  to  Boston  and  ex- 
amine into  his  affairs.  A  friend  of  his,  Herman  W.  Ryland 
by  name,  was  Private  Secretary  to  Sir  James  Craig,  Governor- 
General  of  Canada.  Knowing  that  Ryland  would  be  inter- 

*  Pickering  to  G.  H.  Rose,  March  13, 1 808.  Adams's  New  England  Federalism, 
p.  866. 

f  Adams's  New  England  Federalism,  p.  866. 

t  Pickering  to  Rose,  March  22,  1808.  Adams's  New  England  Federalism,  p. 
368. 


286  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

ested  to  hear  of  the  effect  the  embargo  was  producing  in  New 
England,  Henry  offered,  or  perhaps  was  asked,  to  send  back 
careful  accounts  of  what  he  saw  and  heard  on  his  journey. 
Leaving  Montreal  late  in  February,  he  took  the  usual  road  to 
the  United  States,  crossed  the  Sorel  river  at  St.  John's,  entered 
Vermont,  and  reached  the  little  town  of  Swanton  on  the  shores 
of  Lake  Champlain.  There  he  found  the  roads  blocked  with 
sleighs,  and  the  whole  community  busy  hurrying  lumber  and 
produce  across  the  line,  for  a  report  was  abroad  that  Congress 
had  ordered  trade  with  Canada  to  cease,  and  that  the  Collector 
was  hourly  expecting  instructions  to  stop  it.  At  Windsor 
the  people  were  expecting  war.  At  Boston  he  renewed  ac- 
quaintance with  his  old  friends,  and  was  soon  deep  in  the 
secrets  of  the  Federalists.  He  attended  their  meetings.  He 
learned  their  plans,  and,  from  the  accounts  he  gave  to  Ryland, 
it  appears  that  Pickering  had  correctly  represented  their 
views.  Men  of  talents,  of  property,  and  of  influence  in  Boston, 
he  wrote,  expect  that  the  evil  will  cure  itself.  They  are  sure 
that  a  few  months  more  of  suffering,  of  privation  of  all  the 
benefits  of  commerce,  will  make  the  people  of  ]STew  England 
ready  to  quit  the  Union  and  set  up  a  government  of  their 
own.  For  this  the  leaders  were  even  then  ready ;  but  till 
long-continued  distress  had  made  the  people  acquainted  with 
the  cause  of  the  evils  and  the  cure  they  could  do  nothing. 
Meantime  active  measures  were  being  secretly  taken  to  rouse 
the  people  from  their  lethargy.  In  every  town  of  impor- 
tance committees  had  been  chosen  to  act  in  concert  with  a  cen- 
tral committee  at  Boston  and  to  secure  the  adoption  of  a 
strong  memorial  to  Congress.  Copies  of  a  model  for  such  a 
memorial,  expressing  a  firm  determination  never  to  take  part 
in  a  war  against  Great  Britain,  Henry  asserts  he  delivered  to 
certain  persons  in  the  various  towns  in  Vermont  as  he  passed 
through  them  in  April  on  his  way  back  to  Montreal.  Each 
letter  as  it  arrived  at  Quebec  was  shown  by  Byland  to  Sir 
James  Craig,  and  the  whole  series  was  by  him  forwarded  to 
Lord  Castlereagh.* 

That  much  of  the  heated  talk  heard  by  Henry  was  due  to 

*  Sir  James  Craig  to  Lord  Castlereagh,  April  10  and  May  5,  1808. 


1808.  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS.  287 

the  passing  excitement  of  the  hour  cannot  be  doubted,  for  he 
reached  Boston  on  the  eve  of  a  General  Court  election  and 
just  after  the  publication  of  a  bitter  letter  from  Pickering.  It 
was  addressed  to  Governor  Sullivan,  to  be  by  him  laid  before 
the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts.  But  the  Governor  refused 
to  transmit  it.  A  copy  was  thereupon  given  by  George  Cabot 
to  the  press,  and  it  soon  appeared  both  in  the  newspapers  and 
in  pamphlet  form.  The  title-page  of  the  pamphlet  declares 
that  the  purpose  of  Pickering  was  to  exhibit  to  his  constitu- 
ents the  imminent  danger  of  an  unnecessary  and  ruinous 
war.*  Undoubtedly  this  was  true ;  but  it  was  not  the  whole 
truth,  for  back  of  it  lay  the  intention  to  so  influence  the  elec- 
tion that  John  Quincy  Adams  should  not  be  returned  to  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States. 

John  Quincy  Adams,  the  son  of  John  Adams  and  Abigail 
Smith,  was  born  in  1767,  in  the  North  Parish  of  Braintree,  or, 
as  it  is  now  called,  the  town  of  Quincy,  Massachusetts.  Of  all 
Americans  of  his  time,  he  alone  may  be  said  to  have  been  bred 
a  statesman.  From  the  day  when  he  stood  at  his  mother's  side 
and  heard  the  cannon  at  Bunker  Hill  and  saw  the  smoke  go 
up  from  the  burning  village  of  Charlestown,  his  career  had 
been  one  long  training  for  public  life.  Before  he  was  twelve 
he  accompanied  his  father  on  two  missions  to  Paris.  At  four- 
teen his  own  diplomatic  career  began  when,  as  Secretary  he 
went  with  Francis  Dana  to  Russia.  Little  came  of  the  mission, 
and,  after  six  months  spent  in  travel,  Adams  returned  to  Paris, 
where,  as  an  assistant  secretary,  he  helped  to  draw  up  the 
papers  and  documents  used  in  the  peace  negotiations  of  1782 
and  1783.  Two  years  later  he  might  have  gone  with  his 
father  on  the  English  mission ;  but  he  chose  to  come  back  to 
the  United  States ;  graduated  at  Harvard  and  studied  law.  In 
1790  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  but  his  clients  were  few ;  his 
political  training  began  to  tell,  and  he  drifted  rapidly  into  poli- 
tics. Over  the  signature  of  Publicola  he  attacked  the  doctrine 
of  Paine's  "  Rights  of  Man."  As  Marcellus  he  defended  and 

*  A  Letter  from  the  lion.  Timothy  Pickering,  a  Senator  of  the  United  States 
from  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  exhibiting  to  his  Constituents  a  View  of  the 
Imminent  Danger  of  an  Unnecessary  and  Ruinous  War.  Addressed  to  his  Ex- 
cellency, James  Sullivan,Governor  cf  the  State.  Boston,  March  9,  1809. 


288  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

explained  the  proclamation  of  neutrality.  As  Columbus  and 
as  Barneveldt  he  denounced  and  held  up  to  public  condemna- 
tion the  conduct  of  Citizen  Genet.  Services  of  this  sort  were 
not  to  go  unrewarded,  and  in  1794  "Washington  sent  him  to 
Holland  as  Minister  Resident  at  the  Hague.  From  Holland 
he  was  soon  ordered  to  repair  to  Portugal,  but,  before  he 
started,  the  order  was  countermanded,  and  he  went  as  Minister 
to  Berlin.  On  the  defeat  of  his  father  and  the  fall  of  the 
Federal  party  from  power,  he  once  more  came  back  to  Boston, 
was  made  a  commissioner  in  bankruptcy,  was  promptly  re- 
moved from  the  office  by  Jefferson,  and  in  1802  took  his  seat 
in  the  State  Senate.  From  there,  a  year  later,  he  was  sent  to 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 

His  conduct  on  the  chief  question  then  before  Congress 
was  of  a  piece  with  his  conduct  on  every  public  question  on 
which  he  ever  had  a  voice.  For  what  might  be  Federal  doc- 
trine, or  Republican  doctrine,  as  to  the  purchase  of  Louisiana 
he  cared  nothing.  But,  considering  the  measure  aside  from 
politics,  he  declared  the  acquisition  of  the  territory  most  desir- 
able and  the  manner  of  the  acquisition  most  unconstitutional. 
An  amendment  of  the  Constitution  legalizing  the  purchase 
was  therefore,  in  his  opinion,  necessary.  When,  however,  he 
moved  for  a  committee  to  consider  such  an  amendment,  not  a 
Senator  present  would  second  him.  From  that  moment  he 
ceased  to  be  counted  a  Federalist,  and  became  a  man  without 
a  party.  "Now  his  vote  was  with  the  Federalists,  now  it  was 
cast  for  some  favorite  measure  of  the  Republicans.  Always, 
and  under  all  circumstances,  it  was  determined  by  his  own  in- 
dependent judgment.  He  supported  the  purchase  of  Louisiana. 
He  voted  for  the  acquittal  of  Pickering  and  Chase.  He  in- 
troduced resolutions  condemning  impressment  and  the  right 
of  search.  He  voted  for  non-intercourse.  He  took  part  with 
both  Republicans  and  Federalists  in  their  Boston  meetings  on 
the  Chesapeake  affair.  He  was  a  member  of  the  committee 
that  reported  the  Embargo  Bill,  and  he  spoke  and  voted  for 
it.  He  had  now  committed  the  unpardonable  sin,  and  the 
Federalists  cast  him  out  with  loathing  and  contempt.  Yet  his 
career  did  not  by  any  means  seem  ended.  The  Republicans 
had  of  late  years  made  great  gains  in  Massachusetts.  The 


1808.  DISTRESS  OF  THE  SAILORS.  289 

embargo  was  not  yet  felt  in  all  its  severity,  and,  if  Adams  was 
to  be  defeated,  something  must  be  done  to  turn  every  Fed- 
eralist against  him.  This  Pickering  undertook  to  do,  and  did 
with  his  letter.  It  became  the  campaign  document  of  the 
hour.  Sullivan  made  haste  to  answer  it;  but  his  ill-temper 
defeated  his  purpose.  Adams  answered  it  with  spirit  and 
courage.  But  Pickering  triumphed.  The  election  was  car- 
ried, and  on  June  third,  1808,  the  General  Court  chose  James 
Lloyd,  Jr.,  a  Senator  to  succeed  Adams.*  The  insult  was 
marked,  for  the  choice  of  a  successor  might  well  have  been 
put  off  till  the  Legislature  met  in  January,  1809.  On  June 
eighth  Adams  resigned,  and  the  next  day  Lloyd  was  elected  to 
fill  his  unexpired  term,  f 

Long  before  this  time,  however,  the  embargo  began  to  be  \ 
felt,  and  felt  seriously.  In  the  large  shipping  towns  business 
of  every  kind  fell  off,  and  soon  utterly  ceased.  The  rope- 
walks  were  deserted.  The  sail-makers  were  idle.  The  ship- 
wrights and  the  draymen  had  scarcely  anything  to  do.  Pitch 
and  tar,  hemp  and  flour,  bacon,  salt  fish,  and  flaxseed  became 
drugs  upon  the  shippers'  hands.  But  the  greatest  sufferers  I 
of  all  were  the  sailors.  In  Boston  one  hundred  of  them  bear^  ! 
ing  a  flag  went  in  procession  to  the  Government  house  de- 
manding work  or  bread.  The  Governor  told  them  he  could 
do  nothing  for  them,  and  they  went  off.  Some  sharpers  next 
took  up  their  cause,  and  sent  to  the  selectmen  a  petition  bear- 
ing the  names  of  one  hundred  and  ten  sailors.  The  selectmen 
sent  it  to  the  General  Court,  and  the  General  Court  chose  a 
committee  to  meet  twenty-five  of  the  signers.  Six  came  to 
the  meeting.  From  them  it  appeared  that  the  petition  had 
been  drawn  by  an  unknown  man ;  that  he  sat  at  an  open  win- 
dow, and  whenever  a  sailor  went  by  called  him  in  and  made 
him  put  down  his  name,  or,  if  he  could  not  write,  put  it  down 
for  him.  As  more  than  a  third  of  the  names  were  thus  ob- 
tained, the  petition  was  not  heeded.  At  New  York  the  Com- 
mon Council  thought  for  a  time  of  employing  the  sailors  to 

*  In  the  Senate  Adams  had  17 ;  Lloyd,  21.     In  the  House  Adams  received  213 ; 
Lloyd,  248. 

f  The  term  of  Adams  ended  March  4,  1809. 
VOL.  in. — 20 


290  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

grade  the  streets,  cut  down  hills,  and  fill  up  swamps  and  deep 
lots.  But  a  better  arrangement  was  finally  made  with  the 
officer  in  command  of  the  Navy  Yard.  The  sailors  were  to 
sign  articles  to  remain  in  the  service  of  the  United  States  dur- 
ing their  own  pleasure,  and  do  such  work  as  the  commanding 
officer  should  prescribe.  The  Common  Council  were  to  find 
food,  grog,  fuel,  candles,  and  pay.  The  sailors,  who  had  a 
wholesome  dread  of  the  discipline  of  the  navy,  at  first  declared 
they  had  rather  starve  than  sign ;  but  when  the  Common  Coun- 
cil promised  they  should  not  be  trepanned,  great  numbers 
made  haste  to  sign.  In  Philadelphia  a  band  of  seamen  with 
a  flag  paraded  the  streets,  drew  up  before  the  State  House, 
and  sent  a  committee  in  to  see  the  Mayor.  The  Mayor  assured 
them  he  had  no  power  to  grant  any  relief,  told  them  such  con- 
duct was  highly  improper,  and  ordered  the  flag  put  away. 
When  this  was  done  he  went  out,  spoke  a  few  words,  and 
advised  them  to  seek  help  from  the  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
which  immediately  took  up  the  consideration  of  the  best  way 
to  employ  the  idle  sailors,  and  soon  had  them  at  work  making 
canvas,  rope,  coarse  mats,  oakum,  gaskets,  and  points. 

The  Republican  newspapers  praised  this  conduct  as  most 
patriotic  ;  but  the  Federal  journals  ascribed  it  entirely  to 
fear.  Every  one  knew  that  sailors  were  a  bold,  reckless,  law- 
defying  set.  They  were  not  filled  with  that  love  of  France 
so  often  shown  by  the  philosophic  President.  They  were  not 
inclined  to  starve  in  idleness  at  home  in  order  that  the  cause 
of  Napoleon  Bonaparte  might  flourish  abroad.  It  was  well, 
therefore,  to  feed  and  pet  them,  lest,  cold,  hungry,  and  mad 
with  rum,  they  should  rise,  man  their  ships,  and  set  at  naught 
not  only  the  embargo,  but  even  Mr.  Jefferson's  gun-boats,  so 
carefully  drawn  up  along  the  coast.  Quieting  the  sailors,  how- 
ever, would  do  but  little  good.  The  ship-chandlers,  and  sail- 
makers,  and  rope-walkers,  the  merchants  and  the  shop-keepers, 
would  quickly  feel  the  blight,  and,  long  before  spring  came, 
the  farmers  would  be  crying  out  that  their  produce  did  not 
bring  a  cent.  Then  would  come  failure  to  pay  the  interest  on 
their  mortgages,  and  the  Sheriff  would  next  be  busy  in  every 
State  dispossessing  men  who,  but  for  the  embargo,  would  have 
been  growing  richer  day  by  day.  Embargoes,  the  Federal 


1808.  "0-GRAB-ME"  POLICY.  291 

writers  would  say,  have  hitherto  been  laid  for  some  good  pur- 
pose :  to  catch  sailors  to  man  a  fleet ;  to  keep  intelligence  of  an 
intended  expedition  from  reaching  an  enemy ;  but  never  be- 
fore has  an  embargo  been  laid  to  keep  ships  of  a  neutral  nation 
from  falling  into  the  enemy's  hands.  The  act  is  foolish  and 
premature.  Is  an  occasional  loss  by  seizure  to  be  compared 
with  the  sure  and  universal  loss  by  embargo  ?  Suppose  that, 
instead  of  the  articles  of  our  commerce  being  shut  up  in  ports 
without  the  smallest  prospect  of  a  market,  they  had  been 
suffered  to  go  to  Europe  and  the  Indies.  What  then  would 
have  happened  ?  Two  ships  in  a  hundred  would  probably 
have  been  seized  by  the  French.  Some  would  reach  Europe 
and  meet  a  fine  market.  Others  would  go  to  England,  get  a 
license  to  sail  to  a  Baltic  or  an  Adriatic  port,  and  there  sell  at 
great  profit  the  flaxseed,  the  tobacco,  the  rice,  which  now  lies 
rotting  on  a  hundred  wharves  while  the  notes  given  in  payment 
are  protested  at  the  Exchange.  Can  any  man  in  his  senses""] 
believe  for  one  minute  that  the  embargo  is  anything  else  / 
than  a  blow  aimed  at  the  commerce  of  New  England  and  the  J 
maritime  greatness  of  our  country  ?  "  The  act  ought,"  saitP 
one  writer,  "to  be  called  the ' Dambargo.' "  "  Our  President," 
said  another,  "delights  in  the  measure  because  the  name 
hides  so  well  his  secret  wishes.  Read  it  backward,  and  you 
have  the  phrase,  '  O-grab-me.'  Divide  it  into  syllables  and 
read  backward,  and  you  have  the  Jeffersonian  injunction, 
'  Go  bar  'em.'  Transpose  the  seven  letters  of  the  word,  and 
you  will  have  what  the  embargo  will  soon  produce,  'mob- 
rage.'  "  * 

*  The  squibs  written  on  the  embargo  were  countless,  and,  bad  as  they  were, 
a  few  specimens  deserve  to  be  given : 

Why  is  the  embargo  like  sickness  ? 
Because  it  weakens  us. 

Why  is  it  like  a  whirlwind  ? 

Because  we  can't  tell  certainly  where  it  came  from  or  where  it  is  going ;  it 
knocks  some  down,  breaks  others,  and  turns  everything  topsy-turvy. 

Why  is  it  like  hydrophobia  ? 
Because  it  makes  us  dread  the  water. 

If  you  spell  it  backward  what  does  it  say  ? 
0  grab  me ! 


292  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

In  defence  of  the  justice  and  prudence  of  the  embargo 
the  Republicans  had  much  to  say.  They  allowed  that  the 
measure  was  most  serious,  but  protested  that  it  could  no 
longer  be  put  off.  They  recalled  how  Great  Britain,  by  inter- 
polations in  the  sea  code  of  nations,  had  provoked  the  Berlin 
decree  of  November,  1806 ;  how  the  allies  of  France  had 
adopted  this  decree  in  1807 ;  how  Great  Britain  had  searched 
our  ships,  how  she  had  impressed  our  seamen,  killed  our  citi- 
zens, and  insulted  our  towns ;  how  her  officers  had  scorned  to 
obey  the  proclamation  of  the  President,  and  how  she  had  at 
last  commanded  every  one  of  her  seamen  in  the  service  of  a 
foreign  state  to  return  at  once  to  the  service  of  his  King. 
They  argued  that  the  ocean  had  become  a  place  of  danger, 
robbery,  and  disgrace ;  that  a  dignified  retirement  was  all  that 
was  left  us,  and  would  be  found  most  effective  in  the  end ; 
that  England  would  feel  the  loss  of  naval  stores  and  supplies 
so  essential  to  her  colonies ;  that  France  would  suifer  by  the 
loss  of  the  luxuries  brought  from  her  colonies  by  our  neutral 
—ships ;  that  Spain  would  be  reduced  to  the  verge  of  starvation 
by  the  lack  of  imported  food.  But  the  strongest  defence  of 
all  was  found  in  two  state  papers  which  just  at  this  time 
reached  America  and  were  promptly  sent  to  Congress.  One 
was  the  long-expected  British  orders  in  council  of  November 
eleventh,  1807.  The  other  was  an  order  of  Napoleon  in  re- 
taliation for  the  English  order,  which  has  ever  since  been 
_known  as  the  Milan  decree.  On  November  fourteenth,  1807, 
the  day  whereon  the  merchants  of  London  read  the  new  orders 
in  council  in  the  Gazette,  Napoleon  was  at  Fontainebleau. 
There  in  October  he  had  signed  the  treaty  which  sealed  the 

Another  is  in  verse : 

Embargo  read  backward,  0-grab-me  appears, 

A  scary  sound  ever  for  big  children's  ears. 

The  syllables  transformed,  Go  bar  'em  comes  next, 

A  mandate  to  keep  ye  from  harm,  says  my  text. 

Analyze  Miss  Embargo,  her  letters,  I'll  wage, 

If  not  removed  shortly,  will  make  mob-rage. 

A  caricature  of  the  time  represents  John  Bull  holding  the  head  of  a  cow. 
"  Bony "  holds  the  tail,  and  Jefferson,  on  his  knees,  is  milking  her.  He  looks 
toward  Bonaparte  for  orders,  and,  as  he  has  no  pail,  seems  to  be  asking  how  long 
he  shall  continue  the  waste. 


1808.  THE  MILAN  DECREE.  293 

fate  of  Portugal  and  Spain,  and  from  thence,  November  fif- 
teenth, he  departed  for  Italy.  Passing  through  Milan  and 
Yerona,  he  reached  Yenice,  turned  back,  and  on  December 
fifteenth  was  again  at  Milan,  when  a  copy  of  the  Ga'zette 
containing  the  orders  overtook  him.  He  seems  never  for  a 
moment  to  have  hesitated  what  to  do,  and  in  forty-eight  hours 
his  retaliatory  order  was  framed,  signed,  and  issued.  Thence^" 
forth  any  ship,  whatever  its  nationality,  that  suffered  an  Eng- 
lish officer  to  search  it,  or  made  a  voyage  to  England,  or  paid 
any  tax  whatsoever  to  the  Crown  of  Great  Britain,  was  dena- 
tionalized, and  whether  it  came  to  a  French  port,  or  to  a  port 
of  an  ally  of  France,  or,  on  the  high  sea,  fell  into  the  power 
of  a  ship-of-war  or  privateer,  was  good  and  lawful  prize.  The 
British  Isles  were  in  a  state  of  blockade  both  by  land  and  sea, 
and  any  ship  that  went  into  or  came  out  of  a  port  of  England 
on  its  way  to  or  from  any  port  in  the  British  possessions  any- 
where on  the  face  of  the  earth,  East  Indies  or  "West  Indies, 
India  or  America,  or  entered  or  left  places  occupied  by  Eng- 
lish troops,  was  to  be  seized  wherever  found.*  Some  earnest"' 
patriots  did  not  fail  to  notice  that  the  day  this  decree  was 
made  public  was  the  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Washington. 

By  that  time  another  prediction  of  the  Federalists  began 
to  be  fulfilled.  The  farmers  were  feeling  the  embargo. 
expectation  of  a  ready  market  and  good  prices,  they  had  mort- 
gaged their  old  land  to  buy  new,  and  had  thus  been  enabled 
to  raise  greater  crops  of  wheat  and  grain  than  ever  before. 
In  Pennsylvania,  in  the  valleys  of  the  Mohawk  and  the  Hud- 
son, in  Yermont,  every  mill  had,  until  the  streams  were  frozen 
over,  been  grinding  day  and  night.  In  some  places  the  farm- 
ers had  been  holding  back  their  flour  in  hopes  that  the  sup- 
ply near  the  great  cities  would  be  quickly  shipped  and  the 
price  put  up.  In  others  they  were  waiting  for  snow  to  make 
transportation  more  easy.  But  ere  the  high  prices  and  the 
snow  came  the  ports  were  closed,  the  demand  for  flour  stopped, 
and  the  farmers  found  themselves  in  possession  of  a  staple  for 
which  they  could  not  get  the  cost  of  sowing,  reaping,  and 

*  American  State  Papers,  Foreign  Relations,  vol.  iii,  p.  290,  Annals  of  Congress, 
1808-1809,  pp.  1751,  1752.    National  Intelligencer,  February  22,  1808. 


294  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

grinding.  If  they  were  honest  men,  their  lot  was  indeed  a 
hard  one.  If  they  chose  to  be  dishonest,  two  courses  lay  be- 
fore them.  They  might,  if  living  near  the  boundary,  turn 
smugglers,  and  hurry  their  flour  over  the  line  to  British  terri- 
tory. They  might  sell  it  to  some  one  who,  tempted  by  the 
great  profits  to  be  made,  was  ready  to  take  the  risks  they 
would  not.  Both  ways  were  used,  and  by  the  middle  of  Feb- 
ruary the  embargo  was  daily  broken  in  a  dozen  bold,  daring, 
and  ingenious  ways.  The  law  applied  to  registered,  sea-letter, 
and  licensed  ships.  But  boats  of  five  tons  burden  and  less 
were  not  required  to  register,  or  take  out  sea-letters,  or  licenses 
to  trade.  On  such,  therefore,  the  embargo  had  no  effect,  and 
they  were  at  once  used  £o  evade  it. 

jTAlong  the  Atlantic  border  the  flour  was  sent  to  the  nearest 
available  port,  hurried  into  a  schooner  or  a  snow,  bonds  were 
given  not  to  land  it  out  of  the  United  States,  and  all  sail  was 
spread.  If  the  food  was  intended  for  the  West  Indies,  the 
vessel  ran  down  the  coast  to  St.  Mary's,  a  little  hamlet  in 
southern  Georgia  on  the  American  side  of  St.  Mary's  river, 
then  part  of  the  boundary  line  between  the  United  States  and 
the  possessions  of  Spain.  There  the  barrels  were  put  on  board 
of  boats  of  less  than  five  tons  and  carried  over  the  river,  or  to 
a  sloop  waiting  off  the  coast  for  a  cargo  for  Bermuda  or  St. 
Kitts.  "When  the  provisions  were  intended  for  Great  Britain 
the  run  was  up  the  coast  to  Eastport,  and  then  over  the  Pas- 
samaquoddy  in  small  boats,  and  so  to  the  Halifax  market. 
I  On  the  Canadian  border  the  smuggling  was  bolder  and 
/more  impudent  still.  In  Vermont  a  favorite  way  was  to  load 
a  dozen  sleds  or  wagons  and  drive  toward  Canada.  A  hill 
with  steep  slopes  and  close  to  the  boundary  line  would  be 
selected  and  a  rude  hut  put  up  on  the  summit.  The  hut  must 
be  so  made  that  when  a  stone  was  pulled  from  the  foundation 
the  floor  would  fall,  the  sides  topple  over,  and  the  contents  of 
the  structure  be  thrown  on  English  ground.  When  thus  built, 
the  sleds  would  be  unloaded,  the  potash  and  flour,  the  pork, 
and  the  lumber  put  in,  the  stone  removed,  and  the  barrels  sent 
rolling  into  Canada.  Once  there,  they  became  English  prop- 
erty and  were  quickly  carried  off. 

So  many  and  so  bold  did  the  evasions  become  that  the 


1808.  SECOND  SUPPLEMENTARY  ACT.  295 

members  of  the  Committee  on  Commerce  and  Manufacture 
took  up  the  matter  and  bade  their  chairman  move  that  they 
be  instructed  to  inquire  if  any  amendment  to  the  embargo 
laws  was  necessary.  When  the  instruction  was  given  the 
committee  at  once  asked  leave  to  report  a  bill,  and,  leave  being 
given,  instantly  presented  it.  At  that  particular  time,  the 
eleventh  of  February,  Hose  had  but  lately  concluded  his  ar- 
rangement with  Madison,  and  had  not  yet  made  known  his 
demand  for  a  disavowal  of  the  reputed  acts  of  Commodore 
Barron.  It  is  likely,  therefore,  that  word  was  sent  to  the 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Commerce  not  to  press  a  bill 
whose  restrictions  would  have  been  felt  severely  along  the  fron- 
tier of  Canada  and  Nova  Scotia.  However  this  may  be,  noth- 
ing more  was  done  till  February  nineteenth,  when  the  mission 
of  Kose  had  really  ended.  Then  the  House  by  a  great  major- 
ity went  into  Committee  of  the  Whole  and  took  up  the  Sup- 
plementary Bill.  In  the  long  debate  which  followed  much 
'  was  said  about  the  expediency,  the  necessity,  the  justice,  the 
hardships,  the  futility  of  such  a  measure.  But  the  sensational 
speech,  the  speech  which  threw  the  committee  into  violent 
commotion  and  roused  the  evil  passions  of  certain  members, 
was  made  by  Barent  Gardenier,  of  "New  York,  late  on  a  Satur- 
day afternoon.  He  described  the  bill,  and  correctly,  as  in- 
tended not  to  lay  an  embargo,  but  to  prescribe  non-intercourse. 
He  declared  that  its  true  meaning  was  that  the  people  of  the 
United  States  should  sell  nothing  but  what  they  sold  to  each 
other.  He  complained  that  no  one  could  give  any  reason  for 
the  acts;  that  an  unseen  hand  was  guiding  the  country  on 
step  by  step  to  ruin ;  that  mystery  overshadowed  everything  ; 
that  the  representatives  knew  nothing,  and  were  suffered  to 
know  nothing ;  that  they  were  mere  automata ;  they  legislated, 
but  knew  not  why  or  wherefore ;  they  moved,  but  knew  not 
who  moved  them ;  and  that  under  this  secret  influence  they 
were  "  forging  chains  to  fasten  "  the  country  "  to  the  car  of 
the  imperial  conqueror."  Again  and  again  in  the  course  of 
his  speech  members  sprang  to  their  feet  and  called  him  to 
order.  Some  begged  the  Speaker  to  stop  him ;  others  cried  out, 
"  Let  him  go  on."  Again  and  again  the  Speaker  commanded 
him  to  keep  within  the  rules  of  propriety.  When  he  had 


296  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

done,  the  House  rose.  But  on  the  following  Monday  member 
after  member  repelled  with  scorn  the  charge  of  French  influ- 
ence. The  language  of  one  was  so  strong  that  Gardenier  sent 
a  challenge ;  the  two  met  on  the  duelling  grounds  at  Bladens- 
burg  and  Gardenier  was  severely  wounded. 

en  passed,  the  law  provided  that  no  boat  of  five  tons  or 
under  should  leave  any  port  unless  bonds  in  twice  the  value  of 
boat  and  cargo  had  been  given  to  land  the  cargo  in  the  United 
States.  If  the  boat  had  never  been  employed  in  foreign  trade, 
if  its  use  had  always  been  confined  to  rivers,  bays,  sounds, 
and  lakes  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States,  a  bond 
equal  to  two  hundred  dollars  per  ton  would  be  sufficient.  If 
not  masted,  or,  if  masted,  not  decked,  and  confined  to  rivers, 
bays,  or  sounds  not  adjacent  to  foreign  territory,  no  bond  was 
required  unless  the  Collector  thought  one  necessary,  in  which 
case  he  might  exact  thirty  dollars  per  ton.  Export  by  land 
was  next  forbidden,  and  every  cart,  wagon,  sleigh,  or  wheeled 
conveyance  so  engaged,  with  the  animals  dragging  it  and  the 
goods  it  contained,  was  declared  forfeit,  and  a  fine  not  greater 
ten  thousand  dollars  laid  upon  the  owners. 

By  this  act  the  embargo  was  spread  over  every  lake,  bay, 
river  in  the  country.  Henceforth  every  market-boat 
that  carried  potatoes  and  cabbages  over  the  river  from  New 
Jersey  to  ISTew  York  ;  every  sloop  that  came  down  the  Hud- 
son with  skins  and  flour ;  every  dugout  that  fished  and  dredged 
for  oysters  in  Chesapeake  Bay ;  every  broadhorn  that  floated 
on  the  Ohio  river ;  every  sail-boat  that  went  out  with  a  pleas- 
ure party  to  sail  or  fish,  must  be  furnished,  if  the  Collector 
wished  it,  with  a  clearance. 

To  enforce  the  law  in  the  seaports  and  on  the  large  bays 
was  a  matter  of  no  great  difficulty ;  but  to  enforce  it  on  the 
Canadian  border  was  all  but  impossible.  The  ease  with  which 
it  could  there  be  evaded,  the  profits  to  be  made  by  evading  it, 
turned  whole  communities  into  smugglers  and  embargo-break- 
ers. This  was  true  along  the  whole  frontier  from  Eastport  to 
Michilimackinac,  but  especially  true  at  such  convenient  spots 
as  Detroit,  Buffalo,  Lewiston,  Sackett's  Harbor,  and,  above  all, 
Lake  Champlain.  Every  letter  that  came  down  from  St.  Al- 
bans  or  Whitehall  declared  that  the  most  open  and  elaborate 


1808.  EMBARGO-BREAKING  IN   VERMONT.  297 

preparations  were  making  to  break  the  embargo,  that  produce 
of  every  sort  was  being  gathered  on  the  lake  shore,  that  timber 
was  being  felled,  and  that  the  moment  the  ice  was  gone  great 
rafts  loaded  with  all  the  produce  raised  in  Yermont  would  go 
down  the  lake  to  Canada.  To  stop  this  flagrant  disregard  of 
law,  Jefferson  determined  to  try  the  effect  of  a  proclamation, 
declared  the  country  round  about  Champlain  to  be  the  seat  of 
a  conspiracy  to  defeat  the  execution  of  the  law,  described  the 
people  as  insurgents,  and  called  on  them  to  desist.*  St.  Albans 
was  the  chief  town  in  the  region  thus  put  under  ban,  and  there 
the  proclamation  gave  such  great  offence  that  the  people  in 
town-meeting  answered  it.  They  told  the  President  that 
stoppage  of  the  ocean  trade  had  ended  the  sale  of  potash  and 
lumber  in  the  maritime  States  ;  that  the  men  he  was  pleased 
to  accuse  of  forming  insurrections  had  then  opened  a  trade 
with  Canada  lest  they  should  suffer  for  the  very  necessaries  of 
lif e ;  that,  as  the  purpose  of  the  embargo  was  the  protection 
of  American  seamen,  ships,  and  goods  on  the  high  seas,  they 
were  at  a  loss  to  know  why  land  trade  had  been  embargoed ; 
that  they  were  astonished  to  be  called  in  a  state  of  insurrec- 
tion, and  that  they  wished  the  act  of  March  twelfth  might  be 
suspended. 

While  the  President  was  writing  his  proclamation  the 
House  was  considering  the  fitness  of  giving  him  power  to 
do  just  what  the  men  of  St.  Albans  requested.  On  the  eighth 
of  April  George  Washington  Campbell,  Chairman  of  the 
Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  rose  in  his  place  and  reminded 
the  House  that  the  end  of  the  session  was  near  at  hand.  What 
might  happen  before  they  met  again  no  one  could  say.  A 
change  might  take  place  in  the  conduct  of  Great  Britain  and 
France.  The  orders  and  decrees  might  be  revoked,  and  he 
therefore  moved  to  give  the  President  power  in  such  an  event 
to  suspend  the  embargo  till  Congress  met  again.  The  resolu- 
tion was  sent  to  the  Committee  of  the  Whole.  A  long  and 
rambling  debate  followed  from  day  to  day  till  April  nine- 
teenth, when  a  bill  came  down  from  the  Senate  providing  for 


*  Proclamation  of  April   19,  1808.     Statutes  at  Large  of  the  United  States. 
Annals  of  Congress,  1808-1809,  p.  680. 


298  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  OHAP.  xix. 

the  very  power  the  House  was  hesitating  to  grant.  The  reso- 
lution of  Campbell  was  instantly  dropped,  the  Senate  bill  was 
passed,  and  the  President  authorized,  if  he  saw  fit,  to  suspend 
the  embargo  till  twenty  days  after  the  next  session  of  Con- 
gress began. 

The  chance  of  using  this  power  was  small  indeed,  and 
five  days  later  Jefferson  signed  a  third  Supplementary  Em- 
bargo Bill  more  stringent  than  any  that  had  gone  before. 
The  greed  of  a  South  Carolina  shipper  had  brought  to  light  a 
new  and  unsuspected  way  of  smuggling.  Having  loaded  his 
ship  with  five  hundred  hogsheads  at  Charleston,  he  offered 
bonds  and  applied  for  a  clearance  to  carry  that  quantity  of 
New  England  rum  to  New  Orleans.  Astounded  at  so  large  a 
shipment  of  New  England  rum  from  Charleston,  the  Collector 
sent  an  inspector  to  find  out  what  it  meant.  Then  the  truth 
came  out.  The  hogsheads  were  full  of  rice.  The  rice  was  to 
be  taken  to  Havana,  sold,  and  a  cargo  of  rum  bought  and  car- 
ried to  New  Orleans.  There  the  Collector  would  certify  that 
the  rum  had  been  landed,  and  the  certificate  taken  back  to 
Charleston  would  release  the  bond. 

To  meet  such  cases  it  was  now  provided  that  no  ship 
could  get  a  clearance  unless  the  loading  was  done  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a  revenue  officer,  nor  sail  to  any  port  of  the  United 
States  near  foreign  territory  without  special  permission  from 
the  President,  nor  sail  to  any  port  whatever  if  the  Collector 
thought  the  intention  of  the  captain  was  to  evade  the  embargo 
laws.  Foreign-owned  vessels  were  forbidden  to  go  from  port 
to  port  of  the  United  States.  Collectors  were  commanded  to 
seize  unusual  deposits  of  food  and  lumber  in  ports  adjacent 
to  foreign  soil.  Commanders  of  public  armed  vessels  and 
gun-boats,  and  masters  of  revenue  boats  and  cutters,  were  bid- 
den to  stop  and  search  any  vessel  belonging  to  American  citi- 
zens they  might  believe  to  be  engaged  in  illegal  traffic.  No 
boat  or  ship  of  any  kind,  large  or  small,  could  navigate  any 
bay  or  river,  sound  or  lake,  packets  and  ferry-boats  alone  ex- 
cepted,  till  a  manifest  of  the  cargo  had  been  given  to  a  col- 
lector or  surveyor  and  a  clearance  obtained  The  cost  of  this 
clearance  was  fixed  at  twenty  cents. 

The  act  went  into  force  on  the  twenty-fifth,  and  a  few 


1808.  WORK  OF  THE  TENTH  CONGRESS.  299 

hours  later  the  tenth  Congress  rose.  In  the  last  moments  of 
the  session,  when  all  business  was  over,  an  incident  occurred 
which,  trivial  as  it  seems,  was  the  outcome  of  a  rapidly-grow- 
ing sentiment,  and,  some  months  later,  was  repeated  in  the 
Legislature  of  almost  every  State  in  the  Union.  "William  Bibb, 
of  Georgia,  moved  that  "  the  members  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives will  appear  at  their  next  meeting  clothed  in  the 
manufacture  of  their  own  country."  A  dozen  fierce  Republi- 
cans attacked  him.  Macon,  of  Georgia,  declared,  with  much 
heat,  that  Congress  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  clothing  of  its 
members ;  that  the  resolution  could  never  be  enforced ;  that 
if  it  were  a  pledge  he  would  not  give  it ;  and  that  if  it  were  a 
law  he  would  not  obey  it.  John  R,hea,  of  Tennessee,  told  the 
House  that  he,  too,  would  wear  such  clothes  as  suited  him. 
Eppes,  of  Virginia,  defended  the  resolution  as  likely  to  en- 
courage a  kind  of  independence  greatly  needed.  But  the  op- 
position was  so  savage  that  Bibb  withdrew  the  motion,  and 
the  members  went  home.  Fifty-eight  acts  had  been  passed. 
Among  them  are  eight  of  much  importance.  One  provided 
for  the  building  of  one  hundred  and  eighty-eight  gun-boats.* 
Another  set  apart  one  million  dollars  for  the  defence  of  the 
ports  and  harbors  of  the  United  States,  f  A  third  continued 
the  Mediterranean  fund.  ^  A  fourth  appropriated  half  a 
million  for  the  purchase  of  arms,  saltpetre,  and  sulphur.*  A 
fifth  ordered  a  hundred  thousand  militia  of  the  States  to  be 
in  readiness  "  to  march  at  a  moment's  notice."  ||  A  sixth  em- 
powered the  President  to  sell  arms  to  the  States.A  By  a 
seventh  the  regular  army  was  increased  by  five  regiments  of 
infantry,  one  of  riflemen,  one  of  light  artillery,  and  one  of 
light  dragoons  to  serve  for  five  years.  Q  The  eighth  continued 
in  force  the  old  act  of  1805  for  the  preservation  of  peace  in 
the  harbors  of  the  United  States.  $ 

The  supplementary  embargo  of  April  fell  with  peculiar 
severity  on  men  whose  business  it  was  to  supply  the  large 

*  Act  approved  December  18,  1807.     The  sum  appropriated  was  $852,500. 
f  Act  approved  January  8,  1808. 

i  Act  approved  January  17,  1808.  A  Act  approved  April  2,  1808. 

*  Act  approved  March  11,  1808.  0  •A-ct  approved  April  12,  1808. 
fl  Act  approved  March  SO,  1808.                         j  Act  approved  April  19,  1808. 


300  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

towns  with  provisions.  Up  the  East  river,  some  ten  miles 
from  New  York,  lived  a  miller  whose  custom  it  was  to  buy 
wheat  in  the  city,  carry  it  on  his  own  boat  to  his  mill,  and  bring 
back  the  flour  in  the  same  manner  to  New  York.  But  under 
the  new  law  every  trip  to  the  city  became  a  source  of  endless 
expense  and  annoyance.  Before  he  could  roll  a  barrel  into 
his  boat  he  must  go  to  New  York,  obtain  a  clearance,  and  give 
bonds  to  bring  the  flour  to  that  city.  As  soon  as  it  was  landed 
he  must  get  a  certificate  from  the  inspector,  and  with  this  re- 
pair to  the  Custom-House  to  prevent  the  forfeiture  of  his 
bond  of  two  hundred  dollars  for  each  ton  of  his  boat.  Under 
this  same  bond  he  might  then  obtain  leave  to  buy  a  certain 
quantity  of  wheat  and  carry  it  to  his  mill.  Once  there,  he 
must  go  before  a  magistrate,  six  miles  away,  and  pay  a  good 
round  fee  for  a  certificate  stating  that  the  wheat  had  really 
been  landed  at  the  mill,  and  this  he  must  bring  back  to  the 
Collector  in  New  York  within  thirty  days,  or  else  his  bond 
was  forfeited. 

Harder  still  was  the  fate  of  the  men  at  Greenwich,  a  little 
town  some  thirty  miles  up  Long  Island  Sound.  The  farmers 
thereabout  supplied  New  York  with  lamb,  veal,  poultry,  and 
potatoes,  which  eight  small  craft  were  constantly  busy  in  carry- 
ing to  the  city.  By  the  new  law  the  owners  of  these  vessels 
were  now  required  to  clear  at  the  Custom-House  and  give 
bonds  to  land  their  potatoes  in  New  York.  But  Greenwich 
lay  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Collector  at  Fairfield.  Fair- 
field  was  twenty  miles  away,  and  this  journey  they  were  forced 
to  make  before  each  trip  to  get  their  clearance  and  their 
bonds.  When  they  came  back  they  were  again  forced  to 
make  the  same  journey  to  present  their  certificates  of  landing 
at  New  York,  and  have  their  bonds  cancelled.  As  each  boat 
made  two  trips  a  week,  the  owners  spent  most  of  their  time 
on  the  road  between  Fairfield  and  Greenwich. 

Lest  the  act  should  not  prove  stringent  enough,  the  Presi- 
dent followed  it  up  with  a  circular  addressed  by  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  to  the  Collectors  of  Customs.  No  more  ship- 
ments of  flaxseed,  of  pot  and  pearl  ashes,  of  lumber,  of  naval 
stores,  of  flour,  or  food  of  any  kind  were  to  be  allowed  unless 
undoubtedly  wanted  for  consumption  at  the  place  they  were 


1808.  FLOUR  CERTIFICATES.  301 

shipped  to.  He  could  see  no  reason  why  flour  should  go  from 
one  port  to  another  on  Chesapeake  Bay ;  or  from  any  port 
whatever  to  the  Delaware  or  Hudson  rivers.  The  restriction 
on  flour  fell  most  heavily  on  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire, 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  the  Territory  of  Orleans,  for  the 
flour  made  in  these  regions  was  far  short  of  the  amount  con- 
sumed. Jefferson  therefore  addressed  a  circular  letter  to  the 
Governors,  suffering  them  to  grant  permits  to  respectable  mer- 
chants to  bring  in  so  much  flour  as  might  be  needed  to  pre- 
vent a  bread  famine.*  Federalists  declared  that  the  Govern- 
ors sold  this  right,  nicknamed  the  permits  "  Presidential  Bulls 
and  Indulgences,"  and  called  the  men  who  used  them  "  Patent 
Merchants  "  and  "  O-grab-me  Pets."  That  the  Governors  sold 
them  is  undoubtedly  false ;  but  the  charge  was  firmly  believed 
and  obtained  some  color  of  truth  by  the  plentifulness  of  the 
permits.  Indeed,  those  granted  by  James  Sullivan,  who  gov- 
erned Massachusetts,  soon  became  as  much  an  article  of  com- 
merce as  government  scrip  or  bank  stock.  Any  man  who  had 
rendered  him  a  political  service,  or  could  call  him  a  friend, 
had  but  to  go  to  the  Government-House  in  order  to  come 
away  with  a  license  for  a  hundred,  or  five  hundred,  or  a  thou- 
sand barrels  in  his  pocket.  These  were  promptly  sent  to  New 
York  or  Philadelphia,  or  any  port  where  flour  had  accumu- 
lated, and  there  sold  to  the  highest  bidders,  who  took  good 
care  to  make  the  shipments  so  slowly  that  the  price  in  Boston 
did  not  fall. 

By  the  fourth  of  July  the  permits  issued  by  Governor 
Sullivan  amounted  to  fifty  thousand  barrels  of  flour  and  one 
hundred  thousand  bushels  of  corn.  Gallatin  in  alarm  com- 
plained to  Jefferson,  who  at  once  wrote  to  Sullivan  to  stop 
importing  provisions.!  The  Governor  was  a  Eepublican ;  but 
he  was  also  a  New  England  man,  and,  catching  the  spirit 
there  prevailing,  he  declined  to  obey,  and  sent  back  a  long 
dissertation  on  the  diet  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts.^:  The 
seaport  towns,  he  explained,  were  supplied  with  bread  almost 

*  Jefferson  to  the  Governors  of  Orleans,  etc.,  May  6,  1808. 
f  Jefferson  to  James  Sullivan,  July  16,  1808.     Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  v,  p. 
317. 

f  Sullivan  to  Jefferson,  July  23,  1808. 


302  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

entirely  from  the  Southern  and  Middle  States.  The  people  of 
the  interior  lived  on  a  mixture  of  Indian  corn  and  rye,  and 
made  their  white  bread  and  pastry  with  flour  brought  from 
the  southward  and  carted  into  the  interior.  This  accounted 
for  the  immense  importation  of  flour.  The  immense  impor- 
tation of  corn  was  due  to  a  demand  for  it  as  food  for  carriage 
horses,  draught  horses,  poultry,  and  hogs.  Let  the  certificates 
be  stopped,  and  in  three  weeks  the  State,  from  one  end  to  the 
other,  would  be  a  scene  of  mob  violence,  riots,  and  convulsions. 

In  the  South  the  legality  of  the  circular  was  tested  in  the 
courts.  A  registered  ship  called  the  Resource  had  come  to 
Charleston  about  the  time  the  embargo  was  laid.  Fearing  that 
worms  would  destroy  his  vessel  if  left  idle,  the  owner  deter- 
mined to  send  her  to  Baltimore,  and  advertised  for  freight. 
All  he  could  get  was  six  hundred  bales  of  cotton.  To  put  to 
sea  so  lightly  laden  would  never  do,  and  he  therefore  agreed 
to  take  two  hundred  barrels  of  rice,  freight  free,  as  ballast. 

"When,  however,  application  was  made  at  the  Custom- 
House  to  give  bonds  and  get  a  clearance,  the  Collector  re- 
fused. He  admitted  that  he  believed  the  voyage  was  to  be 
made  with  honest  intention.  He  admitted  that  the  embargo 
laws  did  not  warrant  him  in  detaining  the  vessel,  but  pleaded  in 
justification  the  circular  letter  of  Gallatin.  The  merchant  at 
once  applied  for  a  mandamus,  and  the  case,  toward  the  end  of 
May,  was  submitted,  without  argument,  to  the  Circuit  Court. 
On  the  bench  were  Justice  William  Johnson  and  the  District 
Judge,  Thomas  Bee.  Johnson  was  a  native  of  South  Carolina, 
was  a  stanch  Republican,  a  warm  friend  of  Jefferson,  and  the 
first  of  his  appointments  to  the  Supreme  Bench.  Judgment 
for  the  Collector  therefore  seemed  certain.  But,  to  the  amaze- 
ment of  the  Republicans  and  the  great  concern  of  the  Presi- 
dent,* the  mandamus  was  issued,  the  circular  pronounced 
illegal,  and  the  decison  made  that  it  was  for  the  Collector, 
acting  under  the  law,  and  not  for  the  President,  to  decide 
what  should  and  what  should  not  go  out  of  the  port  of  Charles- 
ton. Jefferson  called  on  the  Attorney-General  for  an  official 
opinion,  was  told  that  the  Circuit  Court  had  no  power  to 

*  Jefferson  to  the  Governor  of  South  Carolina  [Pinckney],  July  18,  1808. 


1808.  JEFFERSON'S  STRINGENT  ACTION.  303 

issue  a  mandamus  in  the  case,*  and  gave  the  opinion  to  the 
press.  Justice  Johnson  answered  in  a  temperate  and  carefully 
framed  reply,  f  But  Jefferson  never  forgave  him,  and  he  was 
a  few  months  later  censured  by  the  Grand  Jury  of  the  Circuit 
Court  of  Georgia  for  attempting  "  to  defeat  the  intentions  and 
salutary  measures  of  our  Government." 

To  the  explanations  of  Sullivan,  Jefferson  turned  an  equally 
deaf  ear.  He  was  fully  determined  to  support  the  embargo 
at  any  cost.  The  whole  coast  of  New  England  was  patrolled 
by  gun-boats,  frigates,  and  revenue  cutters.  The  negligent  Col- 
lector at  New  Bedford  was  removed.  The  Collector  at  Sulli- 
van was  threatened.  The  importation  of  flour  into  Boston 
was  ordered  to  be  stopped,  and  General  Dearborn  commanded 
to  be  ready  at  any  moment  to  put  down  insurrection  by  force. 
When  the  people  of  Nantucket  Island  petitioned  for  leave  to 
bring  in  food  Jefferson  refused,  and  gave  it  as  his  opinion 
that  if  they  wanted  food  it  must  be  because  they  had  smuggled 
away  what  they  ought  to  have  kept.  In  his  eagerness  for  the 
embargo  he  forgot  all  law  and  took  to  himself  powers  which, 
had  they  been  assumed  by  a  Federalist,  he  would  have  been 
the  first  to  condemn.  He  made  himself  censor,  and  put  whole 
towns  under  ban.  He  made  himself  commissary  for  the  na- 
tion, and  declared  what  and  how  much  the  people  should  eat. 
The  bakers  of  New  York  applied  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  for  leave  to  bring  in  Southern  flour,  assuring  him 
that  the  citizens  would  not  be  content  to  eat  bread  made  with 
the  wheat  grown  in  New  York  State ;  but  Jefferson  declared 
this  a  libel  on  the  citizens  and  the  flour,  and  refused.  "  The 
next  application,"  said  he,  "  will  be  for  vessels  to  go  to  New 
York  for  the  pippins  of  that  State  because  they  are  higher 
flavored  than  the  same  species  of  apples  growing  in  other 
States."  ^  "  You  know,"  he  wrote  two  months  later  to  Gal- 
latin,  "  You  know  I  have  been  averse  to  letting  Atlantic  flour 
go  to  New  Orleans  merely  that  they  may  have  the  whitest 
bread  possible."  *  When  the  captain  of  a  schooner  owned  at 

*  The  opinion  of  Rodney  is  dated  July  15, 1808. 
f  Charleston  Courier,  October  17,  1808. 

J  Jefferson  to  Gallatin,  July  12,  1808. 

*  Jefferson  to  Gallatin,  September  9,  1808. 


304  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

Buckstown,  on  the  Penobscot,  applied  to  the  Secretary  for 
leave  to  sail,  the  President  announced  a  principle  more  start- 
ling yet.  The  character  of  the  place,  he  said,  must  be  consid- 
ered. If  it  were  found  to  be  "  tainted  with  a  general  spirit  of 
disobedience,"  then  the  individual  must  give  positive  proof 
that  he  "  has  never  said  or  done  anything  himself  to  counte- 
nance that  spirit."  *  A  little  later  he  went  further,  and  an- 
nounced the  principle  of  attainder.  He  ordered  Gallatin  to 
see  to  it  that  no  vessel  should  leave  port  "  in  which  any  person 
is  concerned  either  in  interest  or  in  navigating  her,  who  has 
ever  been  concerned  in  interest  or  in  navigation  of  a  vessel 
which  has  at  any  time  before  entered  a  foreign  port  contrary 
to  the  views  of  the  embargo  laws,  and  under  any  pretended 
distress  or  duress  whatever."  f  When  the  people  of  the  Cham- 
plain  region  applied  for  permission  to  run  a  packet  on  the 
lake  they  were  told  plainly  that  the  present  was  no  time  to 
open  up  "  new  channels  of  trade  with  Canada  and  multiply 
the  means  of  smuggling."  ^ 

The  products  of  the  Champlain  region  were  lumber,  pot- 
ash, pork,  and  brandy.  For- these  a  ready  market  had  always 
been  found  at  Albany  and  at  the  thriving  towns  of  Fort 
Edward  and  Whitehall.  But  the  embargo  had  cut  off  the 
trade,  and  the  people,  to  get  a  living,  turned  toward  Canada. 
Out  of  the  lumber  they  made  rafts,  on  the  rafts  they  stacked 
their  potash,  pork,  and  liquor,  spread  sails,  built  rude  shelters, 
and,  with  the  help  of  the  south  wind,  floated  the  whole  down 
the  lake  and  over  the  line  into  Canada.  Windmill  Bay  was  a 
favorite  place  of  shipment.  The  shores  were  said  to  be  cov- 
ered with  produce.  Repeatedly  as  many  as  twenty-five  rafts 
went  out,  favored  by  the  darkness  and  a  strong  south  wind. 
Some  militia,  indeed,  were  sent  from  New  York  and  Vermont 
to  stop  wagons  found  travelling  the  old  road  to  Canada,  and 
to  cut  off  rafts  near  the  line  ;  but  they  did  little.  One  dark 
night  in  May  a  garrison  seized  a  sloop  with  one  hundred  and 
fifty  barrels  of  ashes  and  ninety  more  of  pork ;  but  the  next 
night  a  bateau  with  twenty-five  barrels  passed  the  fort  un- 

*  Jefferson  to  Gallatin,  November  13,  1808. 
f  Jefferson  to  Gallatin,  December  7,  1808. 
$  Jefferson  to  Gallatin,  September  9, 1808. 


1808.  EMBAEGO   BREAKING   ON   THE   BOEDER.  305 

harmed.  Sometimes  a  revenue  cutter  would  chase  a  smuggler 
up  the  Onion  river  and  exchange  shots,  or,  as  on  one  occasion, 
have  a  pitched  battle.  Sometimes  a  sharp  encounter  would 
be  had  with  raftsmen,  which  generally  resulted  in  the  defeat 
of  the  militia.  If  a  raft  was  captured,  the  captors  were  almost 
sure  to  be  surprised  and  the  raft  cut  out  a  few  nights  later. 
At  Alburg,  on  Missisque  Bay,  the  garrison  were  deliberately 
attacked,  captured,  and  a  dozen  barrels  of  potash  carried  off. 
Another  night  forty  men,  armed  and  painted  as  Indians,  sur- 
rounded some  troops  near  the  boundary  and  frightened  them 
into  a  profound  sleep  while  a  raft  with  thirty  sails  and  meas- 
uring ten  acres  in  surface  floated  slowly  by  into  Canadian 
waters. 

At  Oswego,  two  lake  craft  having  been  refused  clearances 
for  Sackett's  Harbor,  the  captains  went  off  without  clearing. 
The  Collector  gave  chase  in  a  revenue  cutter ;  but,  finding  the 
crews  armed  and  ready  to  fight,  he  suffered  them  to  go  on. 
This  so  enraged  the  Republicans  that  forty  men  of  Marcellus 
volunteered  to  march  to  Oswego  and  enforce  the  embargo, 
while  the  Governor  of  the  State  begged  the  President  to  pro- 
claim Oswego  in  a  state  of  insurrection. 

At  Sackett's  Harbor  an  affair  took  place  which  is  a  good 
example  of  what  was  constantly  happening  along  the  lake 
border.  One  day  in  September  two  boats  loaded  with  ashes 
came  down  the  Big  Sandy  Creek.  As  their  owners  noticed 
troops  at  the  mouth  of  the  creek,  the  boats  were  quickly  put 
about ;  but  they  had  been  seen,  and  were  followed  the  next 
day  by  the  soldiers,  who  found  the  boats  sunk  opposite  the 
house  of  a  Captain  Fairfield.  Landing,  they  saw  the  masts, 
sails,  and  oars  scattered  about,  the  ashes  stored  in  the  house, 
and,  hard  by,  a  swivel  gun.  The  smugglers  meanwhile  were 
busy  cutting  down  trees  and  throwing  them  into  the  creek  to 
hinder  the  return  of  the  troops  by  water.  Learning  this,  the 
officer  in  command  broke  into  the  house  and  made  a  hasty  re- 
treat with  the  potash  and  the  swivel.  Captain  Fairfield  was 
not  in  the  county.  But  his  wife  promptly  complained  to  the 
nearest  magistrate,  who  issued  a  process  in  civil  action.  The 
constable,  being  afraid  to  serve  it,  gathered  a  posse  of  thirty 
men  and  started  with  them  for  the  lake  shore.  There  he 

VOL.  III. — 21 


306  THE  LONG  EMBAEGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

formed  a  line  and  called  on  the  troops  to  surrender  or  fight. 
They  chose  to  fight,  charged  the  posse,  scattered  it,  and  took 
ten  prisoners.  Not  long  after,  the  people  of  Ellisburg  were 
again  thrown  into  alarm  by  the  appearance  of  the  troops,  who 
came,  they  said,  to  take  the  magistrate  who  issued  the  pro- 
cess. This  magistrate  was  Judge  Sackett,  a  man  well  known 
in  those  parts,  and  the  founder  of  the  town  which  still  bears 
his  name.  But  he  was  not  to  be  taken,  and,  having  found 
two  citizens  to  make  charges  of  felony,  he  issued  another 
warrant  and  again  gave  it  to  the  constable  to  serve.  This  time 
the  hue  and  cry  was  raised,  and  several  hundred  men  were  soon 
gathered  in  Ellisburg.  To  them  the  constable  read  the  law 
of  hue  and  cry  and  the  law  for  arming,  and  bade  them  meet 
armed  at  sunrise  next  morning.  Eighty  came,  but  the  con- 
stable, not  being  sure  that  he  could  command  armed  men 
until  he  had  himself  been  opposed  by  arms,  dismissed  them. 
Determined  not  to  be  deprived  of  their  vengeance,  the  Ellis- 
burgers  now  sent  out  a  call  to  the  people  of  Jefferson  County 
to  meet  in  their  turn  and  take  into  consideration  the  legal 
way  of  seizing  certain  felons  who  had  bound  and  carried  off 
ten  citizens  while  attending  to  an  affair  of  the  law.  The  meet- 
ing was  duly  held,  and  some  strong  resolutions  on  the  subject 
drawn  up. 

Yiolence,  insolence,  and  law-breaking  were  now  frequent 
along  the  whole  border.  Five  open  boats,  full  of  potash,  at- 
tempted to  make  the  run  from  Fort  Niagara  to  Canada,  and, 
despite  the  troops  and  the  Collector,  three  succeeded.  On  Sal- 
mon river,  in  Oneida  County,  the  crew  of  a  revenue  cutter  be- 
haved so  insolently  that  the  people  rose,  seized  them,  and  put 
them  into  the  jail.  At  Lewiston  twenty  men  came  over  from 
Canada  and  carried  off  a  quantity  of  flour  by  force.  They 
were  believed  to  have  gone  to  Canada  for  that  very  purpose. 
A  ship  showing  no  name  and  carrying  no  papers  was  taken  off 
Squam  Bay  and  sent  into  Charlestown.  Those  who  pretended 
to  know,  said  she  hailed  from  Newburyport.  There  the  em- 
bargo was  most  hated,  and  there  the  shippers  and  seamen  were 
most  active  in  evading  it.  On  one  occasion  a  sloop  full  of 
provisions  made  her  escape  from  the  town.  Some  officers 
who  attempted  to  stop  her  were  beaten  by  the  crowd  on  the 


1808.         EFFECT  OF  THE  EMBARGO  IN   ENGLAND.  307 

wharf  and  fired  at  by  the  sailors  on  the  vessel.  Nor  was  she 
taken  till  a  cutter  armed  with  troops  had  chased  her  for  ten 
hours.  On  another  day  nine  ships  hoisted  sail  and  defiantly 
started  out.  Again,  a  schooner  laden  with  fish  put  out  to  sea. 
A  revenue  cutter  brought  her  back ;  but  the  people  again  rose, 
and  were  with  difficulty  prevented  from  destroying  the  cutter 
at  the  wharf. 

In  the  midst  of  privations,  hardships,  poverty,  and  down- 
right suffering,  it  would  have  afforded  the  people  some  con- 
solation to  know  that  the  embargo  was  producing  an  effect 
abroad.  Unhappily,  the  very  reverse  seemed  to  be  the  case- 
in England  the  meeting  of  Parliament  on  the  twenty-first  of 
January,  1808,  had  been  followed  by  three  months  of  hot  dis- 
cussion of  the  orders  in  council.  Perceval  and  Hawkesbury, 
Canning  and  Castlereagh  defended  them  from  the  ministerial 
benches.  Lord  Grenville  and  Lord  Erskine  thundered  against 
them  from  the  benches  of  the  opposition.  From  Lord  Erskine 
came  a  set  of  resolutions  declaring  the  orders  to  be  contrary 
to  the  constitution,  the  laws,  the  rights  of  nations,  and  the 
Magna  Charta.  From  the  merchants  of  London,  of  Liverpool, 
of  Manchester,  came  petitions  praying  for  their  repeal.  The 
petitioners  were  heard  by  council,  and  Henry  Brougham 
appeared  in  their  behalf.  But  pamphlets,  petitions,  the  em- 
bargo, the  arguments  of  Brougham,  and  the  votes  of  the 
Whigs,  were  alike  vain.  The  orders  were  confirmed,  the  rates 
were  fixed,  and  numbers  of  American  ships  then  in  England 
paid  them.  Thenceforth  the  Republicans  never  wearied  of 
counting  up  the  vast  sums  these  taxes  would  have  taken  from 
American  merchants  had  not  the  embargo  put  an  end  to 
trade. 

It  is  not,  they  would  say,  very  many  years  since  the  coun- 
try rang  with  the  patriotic  cry,  Millions  for  defence,  but  not 
a  cent  for  tribute.  But  times  have  changed,  and  the  very 
men  who  in  1798  would  not  pay  a  cent  of  tribute  to  France 
are  only  too  ready  in  1808  to  pay  millions  of  dollars  in 
tribute  to  England.  Take  off  the  embargo,  they  cry.  Let 
our  ships  go  free.  What  harm  has  England  done  to  us? 
What  harm  !  Let  us  suppose  their  wishes  granted.  Let  us 
suppose  the  embargo  suspended  and  trade  carried  on  under 


308  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

the  Berlin  decree  and  the  orders  of  1807.  Let  us  suppose 
an  American  ship  sails  from  Virginia  for  Holland,  France, 
Spain,  Portugal,  or  Germany  with,  say,  four  hundred  hogs- 
heads of  tobacco.  She  must  go  first  to  a  British  port  and 
there  ask  leave  to  continue  the  voyage,  and  not  only  ask  but 
pay  for  it  at  the  rate  of  one  and  a  half  pence  for  each  pound 
of  the  tobacco,  and  twelve  shillings  for  each  ton  of  the  ship. 
Now,  as  a  hogshead  contains  one  thousand  pounds  of  to- 
bacco, the  cargo  will  weigh  four  hundred  thousand  pounds, 
which,  taxed  at  a  penny  and  a  half,  will  yield  eleven  thousand 
dollars.  The  ship  will  probably  be  of  four  hundred  tons,  which, 
at  twelve  shillings  the  ton,  will  add  one  thousand  and  sixty- 
five  dollars  more.  Light  money,  lawyers'  fees,  pilotage,  and  a 
host  of  charges,  will  make  eight  hundred,  and  raise  the  grand 
total  to  twelve  thousand  nine  hundred  and  sixty-five  dollars. 
This  paid,  and  a  royal  license  secured  at  a  cost  of  one  hundred 
dollars,  the  captain  may  go  on  to,  say,  Amsterdam,  where  he 
may  sell  his  tobacco  and  take  on  a  cargo  of  gin.  But  on  the 
way  home,  if  the  French  do  not  seize  him  for  having  a  British 
license,  he  must  again  touch  at  an  English  port  and  pay  duty 
on  the  gin.  The  duty  is  a  shilling  and  three  pence  per  gallon. 
If  he  has  six  hundred  pipes,  or  sixty  thousand  gallons,  the  tax 
will  be  sixteen  thousand  six  hundred  and  fifty  dollars.  Ton- 
nage and  light  money  added  to  this  will  make  the  duty  eight- 
een thousand  five  hundred  and  fifteen  dollars.  Thus,  were  it 
not  for  the  embargo,  every  American  ship  that  went  out  with 
tobacco  and  came  back  with  gin  would  pay  Great  Britain 
thirty-one  thousand  dollars  for  leave  to  do  so.  About  sixty- 
eight  thousand  hogsheads  of  tobacco  are  sent  to  Europe  each 
year,  in  one  hundred  and  seventy  ships.  "Were  the  ships  suf- 
fered to  take  them,  American  merchants  would  be  forced  to 
pay  into  the  treasury  of  King  George  two  millions  three 
hundred  and  thirty-eight  thousand  dollars.  On  an  ordinary 
cargo  of  flour  the  duty  is  nine  thousand  dollars;  on  an 
ordinary  cargo  of  fish,  four  thousand  dollars.  And  these 
duties  are  for  leave  to  enter  Amsterdam,  or  Rotterdam,  or 
Brest,  or  Bordeaux.  They  are  so  many  millions  of  tribute. 
They  are  blackmail  exacted  by  Great  Britain  on  precisely 
the  same  principles  and  with  precisely  the  same  right  as  a 


1808.  THE  BAYONNE  DECKEE.  309 

few  years  since  they  Vere  exacted  by  Tunis,  by  Tripoli,  by 
Algiers.* 

In  France  the  embargo  was  actually  made  an  excuse  for  a 
new  decree  worse  than  those  of  Berlin  and  Milan  combined. 
The  purpose  of  the  embargo  was  to  stop  the  departure  of 
ships  from  ports  of  the  United  States ;  but  it  had  not  been 
very  long  in  force  when  it  proved  far  more  efficacious  in 
keeping  them  out.  To  captains  of  American  ships  in  foreign 
waters  the  embargo  left  but  one  choice.  They  must  come  home 
and  see  their  ships  rot  in  some  embargoed  town  while  they 
sank  slowly  but  surely  into  poverty  and  distress,  or  they  must 
stay  abroad,  take  out  a  British  license,  and,  in  strict  obedi- 
*ence  to  the  orders  in  council,  carry  on  a  hazardous  but  lucra- 
tive traffic.  With  scarce  an  exception,  therefore,  they  stayed 
abroad,  and,  by  means  of  forged  papers,  sought  to  evade  the 
restrictions  of  the  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees.  For  a  while  all 
went  well,  for  Napoleon  was  at  Bayonne  busy  maturing  his 
plans  for  pulling  down  the  Bourbons  from  the  throne  of  Spain 
and  setting  up  his  own  family  instead.  So  busy  was  he  that  he 
seemed  for  a  time  not  to  notice  this  new  violation  of  his  de- 
crees. From  the  day  when  he  signed  the  treaty  of  Tilsit  and 
laid  low  the  fourth  European  coalition,  all  the  plans,  all  the 
movements,  of  Napoleon  centred  on  Spain.  In  the  early  days 
of  the  coalition  the  Prince  of  Peace  had  been  suffered  to  issue, 
in  the  name  of  Carlos  IY,  a  proclamation  declaring  war  and 
calling  the  Spanish  people  to  arms.  But  this  show  of  cour- 
age was  short-lived.  A  week  later  the  battle  of  Jena  was 
fought ;  boldness  gave  way  to  consternation,  and  the  procla- 
mation was  instantly  recalled.  Napoleon  seemed  to  give  it 
no  heed.  But  he  was  not  the  man  to  forget  and  forgive,  and 
Prussia  and  Russia  disposed  of,  he  turned  his  attention  to 
Spain.  His  way  of  proceeding  was  characteristic.  She  was 
too  feeble  to  conquer,  for  he  had  sacrificed  her  fleet  at 
Trafalgar  and  had  sent  her  army  to  the  shores  of  the  Baltic 
Sea.  He  determined,  therefore,  to  take  armed  possession  of 
her  soil  and  frighten  the  King  from  his  throne.  For  this 
an  excuse  was  needed  and  quickly  found.  Portugal,  the  only 

*  Baltimore  Evening  Post,  September  2  and  2Y,  1808. 


310  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

neutral  State  on  the  ocean-front  of  Europe,  save  Denmark, 
was  ordered  to  enforce  the  Berlin  decree.  The  King  so  far 
obeyed  as  to  shut  his  ports  to  the  commerce  of  England,  but 
refused  to  confiscate  English  goods.  This  was  not  enough,  and, 
having  announced  to  the  Portuguese  Minister,  in  the  presence 
of  a  great  assemblage  of  diplomats  at  Fontainebleau,  that  "  the 
House  of  Braganza  shall  reign  no  more,"  he  began  the  war. 
The  duty  of  conducting  the  campaign  was  assigned  to  Junot, 
who  crossed  the  frontier  of  Spain  on  October  seventeenth 
and  marched  straight  for  Lisbon.  Then  the  double  purpose  of 
Napoleon  began  to  come  out,  for  as  Junot  traversed  Spain  he 
took  possession  of  Burgos,  Valladolid,  Salamanca,  and  Ciudad 
Rodrigo,  established  in  each  a  French  garrison,  and  put  a  French 
officer  in  command.  Pushing  on.  Junot,  on  the  last  day  of 
November,  entered  Lisbon  to  find  Portugal  without  a  ruler. 
The  Prince  Regent,  unable  to  resist,  had  fled  to  his  ships,  and 
with  the  royal  family  and  the  Court  had  sailed  for  South 
America  to  found  an  empire  in  Brazil.  Next  day  another 
army  marching  from  Bayonne  occupied  Yittoria.  In  Febru- 
ary, Barcelona  was  occupied,  and  orders  issued  for  Murat  to 
take  possession  of  Madrid,  while  the  French  Admiral,  Rosily, 
cut  off  the  escape  of  the  royal  family  by  sea.  The  precaution 
was  needless.  Word  of  the  intended  flight  got  out.  The 
populace  of  Madrid  rose,  sacked  the  house  of  Godoy  at  Aran- 
juez,  and  all  but  killed  him.  Cut  off  from  flight,  the  old 
King  abdicated,  his  son  took  the  crown  with  the  title  of  Ferdi- 
nand VII,  and  Murat  entered  Madrid  as  if  to  restore  order.* 
From  that  hour  Spain  became  a  province  of  France.  Hasten- 
Ig  to  Bayonne,  Napoleon  completed  the  work,  swept  Ferdi- 
inand  aside,  and  on  April  seventeenth,  at  a  moment  when  the 
ports  of  Europe  were  crowded  with  American  ships,  sent 
forth  an  order  bidding  the  ofiicers  of  the  Custom-IIouse  of 
Spain,  of  Italy,  of  France,  of  the  Hanse  Towns,  seize  and 
hold  every  ship  then  in  port,  or  that  should  come  into  port, 
flying  the  flag  of  the  United  States,  f  Armstrong  at  once 

*  Exposition  of  the  Practices  and  Machinations  which  led  to  the  Usurpation 
of  the  Crown  of  Spain,  and  the  Means  adopted  by  the  Emperor  of  the  French  to 
carry  it  into  Execution.  By  Don  Pedro  Cevallos.  September,  1808. 

f  Armstrong  to  Madison,  April  23  and  25,  1808. 


1808.  THE   BAYONNE   DECEEE.  311 

demanded  an  explanation.  But  he  was  civilly  told  not  to 
be  alarmed.  Nothing  was  further  from  the  intention  of  tKe 
Emperor  than  annoyance  to  his  good  friends  in  America. 
The  spirit  they  had  shown  in  laying  and  enforcing  the  em- 
bargo had  greatly  pleased  him,  and  to  help  them  carry  out 
their  restrictions  was  the  purpose  of  the  Bayonne  decree. 
The  embargo  made  it  unlawful  for  American  ships  to  engage"! 
in  foreign  trade.  Every  vessel,  therefore  (and  there  were 
hundreds  of  them),  which,  with  the  American  flag  at  its  mas£ 
head,  entered  a  port  of  France  must  either  be  English  sailing 
under  false  colors,  or  American  serving  the  British  cause. 
Both  alike  deserved  confiscation  :  the  one  for  being  an  enemy 
in  disguise,  the  other  for  violating  the  embargo  and  the  Milan 
decree. 

The  explanation  deceived  no  one.  Indeed,  the  great  body 
of  Republicans  wanted  no  explanation.  By  them  the  Bayonne 
decree  was  greatly  liked.  To  carry  to  France  or  to  Spain 
goods  on  which  a  duty  had  been  paid  to  England  was,  in  their 
language,  a  shameful  surrender  of  American  rights,  a  base 
payment  of  tribute  to  Great  Britain.  Every  patriotic  Ameri- 
can ought  to  be  deeply  grateful  to  Napoleon  for  putting  a 
stop  to  so  infamous  a  traffic.  By  the  Federalists  the  act  was 
denounced  as  a  high-handed  outrage.  The  embargo,  they  ar- 
gued, was  an  American  law,  and  could  have  no  force  beyond 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  What 
right,  then,  had  Napoleon  to  take  upon  himself  to  enforce 
American  law  against  American  citizens  in  France  ?  He  had 
none,  and  his  plausible  statement  was  a  mask  to  hide  a  foul 
outrage  on  a  friendly  power.  Under  its  cover  he  had  robbed 
a  neutral  nation  of  more  than  two  hundred  and  thirty  ships. 
Had  the  confiscations  been  made  in  good  faith,  the  ships 
would  have  been  given  over  to  the  United  States ;  they  would 
not  have  been  sold  and  the  money  thrown  into  the  Treasury 
of  France. 

"While  the  Federalists  were  clamoring  their  loudest,  some 
of  these  ships  were  set  free  in  a  most  unlooked-for  manner. 
An  event  occurred  which  deeply  affected  the  course  of  events 
fn  the  United  States,  not  only  then,  but  for  forty  years  there- 
after. The  old  Spanish  monarchy,  once  the  glory  and  the 


312  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

terror,  then  the  contempt,  of  all  Europe,  ceased  to  exist,  and, 
on  June  fifteenth,  at  Bayonne,  Napoleon  crowned  his  brother 
Joseph  King  of  Spain.  As  he  passed  from  Bayonne  to  Ma- 
drid, Joseph  saw  only  too  plainly  that  he  was  a  king  without 
a  country ;  a  ruler  without  a  people  over  whom  to  rule.  All 
Spain  was  in  revolt  against  him.  On  May  second,  at  Madrid, 
the  populace  had  turned  on  their  conquerors,  had  attacked 
them,  and  had  been  quickly  put  down  by  Murat.  But  the 
affair  was  no  common  riot,  no  street  brawl ;  it  was  part  of  a 
great  and  patriotic  uprising  of  the  people.  Ill-led,  undisci- 
plined, half  armed,  they  drove  the  invaders  from  their  soil  and 
inflicted  on  Napoleon  such  reverses  as  he  had  never  known. 
To  them  twenty  thousand  French  troops  laid  down  their  arms 
in  Sierra  Morena.  To  them  the  French  fleet  surrendered  at 
Cadiz.  Joseph  fled  from  Madrid.  Arthur  "VVellesley  landed 
near  Lisbon,  defeated  Junot  at  Yiemieiro,  and  forced  him  to 
quit  Portugal  and  return  to  France.  A  band  of  patriots 
assumed  the  government  of  Spain  and  liberated  every  Ameri- 
can ship  seized  in  Spanish  ports  under  the  Bayonne  decree. 

News  of  the  revolt  was  greeted  in  England  with  trans- 
ports of  delight,  and  the  orders  in  council  repealed  as  to 
Spain.  News  of  the  liberation  of  the  ships  and  the  repeal  of 
the  orders  was  heard  in  New  England  early  in  August,  and  at 
once  acted  on.  In  Boston  the  merchants  called  a  town-meet- 
ing, voted  an  address  to  the  President,  and  appointed  the 
select-men  a  committee  to  lay  the  proceedings  before  the  towns 
of  Massachusetts  and  ask  for  their  approval.  The  address 
called  on  the  President  to  suspend  the  embargo,  at  least  with 
respect  to  Portugal  and  Spain.* 

To  the  mortification  of  the  Federalists,  the  select-men  of 
Salem  wrote  back  that  the  embargo  was  a  wise  measure ;  that 
the  President  would  suspend  it  the  very  moment  he  could 
do  so  with  safety,  and  refused  to  call  a  town-meeting.  The 
select-men  of  Worcester  replied  that  as  ten  freeholders  had 
not  demanded  a  town  meeting,  they  believed  the  sentiment 
of  the  people  was  against  it,  and  they  too  refused.  At  Lynn 

the  people  met,  but  met  to  pronounce  it   "  inexpedient  and 

• 

*  Boston  Gazette,  August  11,  1808. 


1808.  THE  REPUBLICAN  CAUCUS.  313 

unpatriotic "  to  ask  for  a  repeal  at  the  present  crisis.  At 
Pittstown,  in  the  district  of  Maine,  the  people  voted  that  such 
an  address  as  the  Boston  men  wanted  might  be  viewed  as 
acquiescing  in  the  oppressive  decrees  and  was  "  improper." 
Elsewhere  they  were  more  successful,  and  from  New  Bedford, 
from  Augusta,  from  Belfast,  from  Douglas,  from  Plymouth, 
from  Newburyport  and  Provincetown,  from  Wells  and  Bolton, 
from  Sterling  and  Somerset,  Taunton  and  Duxbury,  addresses 
were  sent  to  the  President.*  To  have  answered  these  appeals 
one  by  one  would  have  been  a  great  waste  of  time.  A  general 
reply  was  all  that  was  needed,  and,  selecting  the  Boston  memo- 
rial as  coming  from  the  chief  city  of  New  England  and  as  ex- 
pressing the  sentiments  common  to  merchant  traders  every- 
where, Jefferson  replied. 

The  resolutions  and  the  answers  were  still  the  subject  of 
angry  dispute  when  the  time  came  to  choose  electors  of  Presi- 
dent and  Yice-President.  The  campaign  had  opened  with  the 
year,  and  was  attended  by  what  threatened  to  be  a  serious 
schism  in  the  Republican  party.  That  Madison  was  the  choice 
of  the  great  body  of  Republican  voters  was  well  known.  But 
Monroe  had  returned  from  London  in  the  middle  of  Decem- 
ber, 1807,  and,  supported  by  the  influence  of  John  Randolph 
and  the  quids,  was  to  be  brought  forward  as  the  rival  of  Madi- 
son. Both  were  Virginians,  both  were  old-time  Republicans, 
both  were  exceedingly  popular  in  their  own  State,  and,  what 
was  worse,  Monroe  had  a  strong  following  of  discontented  Re- 
publicans in  New  York.  It  was,  moreover,  believed  that  the 
rejection  of  his  English  treaty  had  made  him  a  favorite  with 
many  Federalists.  To  give  him  time  to  develop  this  strength 
was  not  the  intention  of  the  friends  of  Madison,  and  they 
decided  to  nominate  their  candidate  at  once.  That  Virginia 
might  not  appear  to  be  doubtful  as  to  which  of  the  two  was 
her  favorite  son,  it  was  determined  to  begin  with  her,  and,  as 
the  Legislature  was  in  session,  the  members  were  summoned 
to  meet  in  caucus  on  the  nineteenth  of  January,  1808,  and  ex- 
press their  wishes.  One  hundred  and  twenty-three  attended 
and  chose  electors  pledged  to  Madison.  But  the  friends  of 

*  Boston  Gazette,  August  25,  1808.     Aurora,  September  28,  1808. 


314  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

Monroe  were  not  overawed,  and  fifty-seven  members  of  the 
Legislature  met  and  nominated  electors  pledged  to  him.  And 
now  the  contest  was  transferred  to  Washington,  where,  on  the 
nineteenth  of  January,  the  Republican  senators  and  represent- 
atives were  invited  to  meet  in  caucus  on  the  evening  of  the 
twenty-third.  That  the  appearance  of  regularity  and  harmony 
might  be  kept  up,  the  call  was  issued  by  Stephen  Roe  Bradley, 
of  Yermont.  Bradley  had  been  chairman  of  the  caucus  which, 
in  1804,  had  formally  renominated  Jefferson.  By  virtue  of 
the  authority  thus  vested  in  him,  the  circular  set  forth,  he  now 
deemed  it  fitting  to  call  another  caucus  to  select  candidates 
for  the  offices  of  President  and  Yice-President  of  the  United 
States.  But  the  opposition  was  ready,  and,  as  the  represent- 
atives entered  their  room  one  morning,  they  beheld  two  pa- 
pers pinned  on  the  curtain  near  the  Speaker's  chair.  One  was 
the  printed  circular  of  Bradley,  the  other  was  a  written  answer 
by  Josiah  Masters,  a  member  from  New  York.  By  virtue  of 
a  power  vested  in  him,  similar  to  that  assumed  by  Bradley, 
contrary  to  the  true  principles  of  the  Constitution,  he  deemed 
it  fitting  not  to  call  the  caucus ;  not  to  nominate  characters  for 
the  offices  of  President  and  Yice-President ;  and  to  ask  that 
no  one  attend  to  aid  in  violating  one  of  the  most  important 
principles  of  the  Constitution. 

This  attack  of  Masters  was  immediately  followed  by  another 
from  Edwin  Gray,  a  representative  from  Yirginia.  In  an  open 
letter  which  he  gave  to  the  press  he  denounced  the  usurpation 
of  power,  the  mandatory  style  of  the  call,  and  the  purpose  of 
the  meeting ;  and  declared  that  he  for  one  could  not  counte- 
nance by  his  presence  the  midnight  intrigues  of  any  set  of 
men  who  took  to  themselves  a  power  which  belonged  to  the 
whole  people  of  the  United  States,  and  to  them  alone.  The 
effect  of  these  attacks  was  to  make  Mr.  Bradley  and  his  friends 
more  active  and  more  determined  than  ever.  Timid  Repub- 
licans were  commanded  to  be  present.  Men  of  a  sterner  mould 
were  persuaded.  On  doubtful  Republicans  were  brought  to 
bear  all  manner  of  arguments.  During  two  days  nothing  was 
talked  of  but  the  caucus,  the  men  who  would  attend,  and  what 
the  men  who  attended  would  do.  On  the  rolls  of  the  House 
and  Senate  stood  one  hundred  and  seventy-nine  names.  Of 


1808.  REVOLT  AGAINST  THE  CAUCUS.  315 

these,  one  hundred  and  thirty-nine  belonged  to  men  who,  what- 
ever they  might  think  of  Jefferson  and  his  terrapin  war ;  who, 
whether  they  upheld  the  administration  or  withstood  the  ad- 
ministration, would  have  denied  with  vehemence  that  they  were 
anything  else  than  steady  and  unflinching  Republicans.  Yet 
so  great  was  the  dislike  for  the  caucus  system  that,  when  Sat- 
urday evening  came,  but  eighty-nine  were  present  in  the  Senate 
chamber.  By  these  James  Madison  was  nominated  for  the 
Presidency,  George  Clinton  for  the  Yice-Presidency,  and  a 
short  address  put  forth  in  justification.  Each  man,  the  people 
were  assured,  acted  for  himself  as  a  citizen,  not  as  a  congress- 
man. Necessity,  not  choice,  was  the  reason  for  calling  a  cau- 
cus. Can  any  Republican,  it  was  asked,  recall  the  perils  threat- 
ening us  at  home  and  abroad,  and  doubt  the  need  of  union  ?  Is 
anything  more  likely  to  bring  about  union  than  the  choice  of 
a  character  acceptable  to  Republicans  in  every  section  of  the 
country  ?  And  where  is  such  a  character  likely  to  be  chosen  ? 
In  the  Legislature  of  a  particular  State  ?  In  the  electoral  col- 
leges of  seventeen  States  ?  Or  in  the  meeting  of  the  delegates 
representing  the  wishes  and  the  votes  of  the  Republicans  of 
seventeen  States? 

The  answer  of  the  anti-caucus  men  to  this  reasoning  was 
set  forth  in  a  paper  which,  bearing  the  signatures  of  seventeen 
Republicans,  was  issued  as  an  address  to  the  people.  "Whether 
they  considered  the  call  for  the  caucus,  or  the  behavior  of  the 
caucus  they  found,  they  declared  the  same  cause  for  alarm. 
The  notices  had  been  private,  and  had  been  sent  to  the  dele- 
gates from  the  Territories ;  to  men  who  could  not  cast  a  vote 
in  the  Congress,  and  who  had  neither  part  nor  lot  in  the 
choice  of  a  President.  Once  gathered,  these  men  had  gone  on, 
without  discussion  and  without  debate,  to  nominate  for  Presi- 
dent a  man  most  unfit  for  the  place ;  had  then  published  their 
act  as  the  act  of  the  Republican  party ;  had  sought  to  impress 
on  the  people  the  belief  that  it  ought  to  be  binding  on  all  Re- 
publicans, and  had  denounced  as  an  apostate  every  Republican 
who  would  not  approve  their  candidate  and  their  doings.  All 
this  was  hostile  to  the  spirit  and  plain  intent  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. That  instrument  made  it  the  duty  of  the  States  to 
choose  electors,  and  the  duty  of  the  electors  to  choose  a  Presi- 


316  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

dent.  To  pick  out  one  man  as  the  only  candidate,  and  bind 
every  Republican  elector  to  vote  for  him  and  no  one  else,  is 
to  strip  the  electors  of  all  power  of  choosing ;  is  a  plain  viola- 
tion of  the  Constitution ;  is  a  gross  assumption  of  power  not 
delegated  by  the  people  to  any  set  of  men. 

But  the  man  is  as  objectionable  as  the  way  in  which  he 
was  chosen.  The  aspect  of  our  foreign  affairs  is  far  from 
promising.  We  are  perhaps  on  the  eve  of  war  with  a  great 
maritime  power.  At  such  a  time,  if  it  be  the  duty  of  Repub- 
licans to  agree  on  one  man,  that  man  ought  surely  to  be  noted 
for  firmness,  for  energy,  for  long  public  service  faithfully 
discharged.  Is  Mr.  Madison  such  a  man  ?  "We  ask  for  energy 
and  are  told  of  his  moderation.  We  ask  for  talent  and  are 
told  of  his  unassuming  modesty.  We  ask  for  public  service 
and  are  told  of  the  "  Federalist." 

Mr.  Madison,  was  the  answer,  is  such  a  man.  Has  he  not 
been  chosen  by  a  convention  of  Republicans  ?  Has  not  the 
choice  been  unanimously  approved  by  the  Legislature  of  Ken- 
tucky? Have  not  a  great  majority  of  the  members  of  the 
Legislature  of  Virginia  been  loud  in  their  approval  ?  Have 
not  the  Republican  members  of  the  Legislature  of  Delaware 
declared  for  him  ?  Have  not  scores  of  meetings  of  citizens 
all  over  the  country  voted  him  the  one  Republican  fit  to  carry 
on  the  good  work  begun  by  Thomas  Jefferson  ?  And  what, 
it  was  asked  by  the  Federal  writers,  is  the  good  work  ?  Turn- 
ing Americans  out  of  office  to  put  foreigners  in.  Building 
gun-boats,  mending  the  Constitution,  insulting  England,  pay- 
ing tribute  to  France,  laying  embargoes  and  wiping  American 
commerce  from  the  sea.  Was  this  the  sort  of  work  the  people 
wished  to  go  on  ? 

As  the  spring  election  returns  came  in,  it  seemed  as  if  the 
Republicans  were  doomed.  In  April,  Massachusetts  went 
back  to  Federalism  and  turned  Adams  out  of  the  Senate.  In 
May,  at  the  elections  in  New  York,  the  Federalists  made  great 
gains.  In  June  the  prospect  was  so  dark  that  even  Gallatin 
lost  heart,  and  expected  to  see  the  Republicans  turned  out  on 
March  fourth.*  In  July  he  was  sure  of  it.  Vermont  he 

*  Gallatin  to  Mrs.  Gallatin,  June  29,  1808.     Adams  Gallatin,  p.  373. 


1808.  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION".  317 

considered  as  lost.  New  Hampshire  was  hopeless.  Pennsyl- 
vania was  in  great  doubt.*  In  August  the  only  States  he  felt 
sure  of  were  Virginia,  South  Carolina,  and  those  in  the  "West.f 
But  now  the  tide  turned.  No  Federal  candidate  had  as  yet 
been  nominated,  for  the  leaders  of  that  party  had  been  vainly 
striving  to  persuade  De  Witt  Clinton  to  join  with  them  in  sup- 
porting his  uncle,  George  Clinton,  for  President.  This  in 
August  he  finally  refused  to  do.  The  Federalists  were  then 
forced  to  name  candidates  of  their  own ;  selected  Charles  C. 
Pinckney  and  Eufus  King,  and  lost  the  State  of  New  York. 
Had  electors  been  chosen  by  popular  vote  on  a  general  ticket, 
it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  day  would  have  gone  against 
Madison.  Happily  for  him,  the  custom  of  choosing  electors 
by  the  Legislatures,  then  so  general,  saved  him,  for  many  of  those 
bodies  had  been  elected  before  the  effects  of  the  embargo  were 
seriously  felt.  As  it  was,  the  great  change  which  had  taken 
place  in  the  feelings  of  the  people  was  most  apparent.  On  the 
February  morning,  1805,  when  the  electoral  votes  were  counted 
before  Congress,  but  fourteen,  cast  by  three  States,  were  given 
to  the  Federalist  candidates.  On  the  February  morning,  1809, 
when  a  like  ceremony  was  performed,  forty-seven  votes,  cast 
by  seven  States,  were  counted  for  Pinckney  and  King.  In 
some  States  the  old  majority  for  Jefferson  had  been  reduced. 
In  three  there  was  no  majority  at  all.  In  three  more  the  vote 
was  divided.  Six  electors  in  New  York  refused  to  vote  for 
Madison.  Vermont,  recollecting  her  ancient  feud  with  New 
York,  would  not  give  one  vote  for  Governor  Clinton.  North 
Carolina,  which  in  1804  cast  fourteen  votes  for  Jefferson,  now 
gave  three  for  Pinckney  and  King. 

Just  at  the  time  when  these  elections  were  about  to  take 
place  £  Congress  met  and  matters  came  to  a  crisis.  The  Re- 
publican majority  was  immense.  But  it  was  unorganized,  dis- 
tracted, without  a  guide.  Never  in  the  history  of  our  coun- 
try was  there  a  moment  when  the  controlling  hand  of  an  ex- 
ecutive was  needed  more.  But  the  Executive,  as  on  another 
occasion  in  his  career,  was  not  equal  to  the  emergency.  He 

*  Gallatin  to  Mrs.  Gallatin,  July  8,  1808.     Adams's  Gallatin,  p.  873. 

f  Gallatin  to  Jefferson,  August  6,  1808.     Adams's  Gallatin,  p.  373. 

t  Presidential  electors  were  not  then  chosen  in  all  the  States  on  the  same  day. 


318  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

knew  the  embargo  had  failed.  He  knew  that  his  own  party 
would  not  longer  support  it.  He  knew  his  stanchest  friends 
would  not  listen  to  his  advice,  and  that  even  Virginia  had 
turned  from  him.  He  was  cowed,  and,  positively  refusing  to 
mark  out  a  policy  or  suggest  a  course  of  action,  he  surren- 
dered his  trust,  neglected  his  duty,  and  threw  all  responsi- 
bility on  the  man  about  to  become  his  successor.  He  did  not 
think  it  right,  he  said,  to  propose  measures  Madison  would 
have  to  carry  out.*  True  to  this  sentiment,  he  said  not  a  word 
in  his  annual  message  regarding  the  embargo.  He  was  con- 
tent to  sum  up  our  relations  with  France,  with  Great  Britain, 
Spain,  the  Barbary  Powers,  and  the  Indians,  and  to  tell  what 
had  been  done  toward  increasing  the  militia  toward  putting 
up  forts  along  the  coast,  toward  manufacturing  guns,  toward 
building  up  a  navy,  and  cutting  down  the  public  debt.  One 
hundred  and  three  gun-boats  had  been  built  during  the  year, 
nearly  eighteen  millions  of  revenue  had  been  collected,  more 
than  two  millions  of  the  debt  cancelled,  and  more  was  to  be 
cancelled  on  the  first  of  January.  Yet  even  when  this  was 
paid  a  large  surplus  would  remain.  What  should  be  done  with 
this  annual  surplus  was,  he  thought,  well  worthy  of  considera- 
tion. Should  it  lie  idle  in  the  treasury  vaults  ?  Should  the 
revenue  be  reduced  ?  Should  it  not  rather  be  laid  out  in  roads, 
canals,  rivers,  and  education  ?  If  Congress  did  not  possess  the 
power,  then  that  power  could  be  had  by  such  an  amendment 
to  the  Constitution  as  the  States  would  approve.  Confounded 
by  his  silence  on  the  subject  of  embargo,  the  House  sent  so 
much  of  the  message  as  related  to  foreign  affairs  to  a  commit- 
tee with  George  Washington  Campbell,  of  Tennessee,  as  chair- 
man. Campbell  turned  to  Madison.  Madison  it  is  likely 
turned  to  Gallatin,  who  in  their  joint  name  called  on  Jefferson 
to  summon  the  Cabinet  and  decide  on  a  definite  course  of  ac- 
tion.f  But  he  would  not,  and  Gallatin  in  despair  wrote  out  a 
document  which  the  committee  presented  and  which  is  yet 
known  as  "  Campbell  Report." 

While  Gallatin  was  busy  preparing  it,  the  perplexity  which 

*  Jefferson  to  Logan,  December  27,  1808.     Jefferson's  Writings,  vol.  v,  p.  404. 
f  Gallatin  to  Jefferson,  November  15,  1808. 


1808.  CAMPBELL'S  EEPORT.  319 

afflicted  the  Cabinet  was  yet  more  finely  displayed  in  the 
House.  Member  after  member  rose  and  presented  resolutions 
of  a  most  contradictory  kind.  Crittenden,  of  Vermont,  de- 
manded a  prompt  repeal  of  the  embargo.  Eppes,  of  Virginia, 
was  for  non-intercourse  with  Great  Britain  and  France,  and 
for  arming  and  equipping  more  militia.  Elliot,  of  Vermont, 
called  for  all  instructions  issued  to  revenue  collectors  regard- 
ing the  execution  of  the  laws.  Another  member  demanded 
the  names  and  places  of  residence  of  those  who  had  evaded 
the  embargo  laws ;  another  wanted  a  list  of  all  orders,  all  de- 
crees, and  proclamations  affecting  the  commercial  rights  of 
neutrals,  issued  by  France  and  England  since  seventeen  hun- 
dred and  ninety-one.  There  were  motions  to  forbid  vessels  to 
go  from  port  to  port  along  the  coast  unless  owned  and  manned 
by  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  motions  to  suffer  mer- 
chants to  arm  their  ships  and  send  them  to  countries  not  sub- 
ject to  the  decrees  and  orders  of  Great  Britain  and  France. 
Such  resolutions  were  promptly  sent  to  the  Committee  of  the 
Whole.  But  whenever  the  motion  was  made  to  go  into  the 
Committee  of  the  Whole  to  consider  them  it  was  voted  down. 
The  Republicans  were  quietly  determined  that  nothing  should 
be  done  till  the  committee  appointed  to  consider  so  much  of 
the  message  as  related  to  foreign  affairs  had  reported. 

On  November  twenty -second  Campbell's  report  was 
heard.  It  began  with  an  examination  of  the  reasons  given 
for  issuing  the  decrees  and  orders  in  council,  went  over  the 
history  of  each  restriction,  protested  that  the  United  States 
must  either  fight,  submit,  or  go  on  with  the  embargo,  and 
ended  by  offering  three  resolutions.  One  set  forth  that  the 
United  States  could  not  submit  to  the  edicts  of  Great  Britain 
and  France ;  another,  that  it  would  be  well  to  shut  out  from 
the  ports  of  the  United  States  the  ships,  goods,  and  merchan- 
dise of  France,  England,  and  any  power  obeying  the  decrees 
violating  the  lawful  commerce  and  neutral  rights  of  the  United 
States.  The  third  declared  that  the  country  ought  to  be  at 
once  put  in  a  more  complete  state  of  defence. 

Six  days  later  Campbell  called  up  the  first  of  these  reso- 
lutions in  the  Committee  of  the  Whole,  and  the  debate  began. 
Josiah  Quincy  led  on  the  attack  of  the  New  England  men ; 


320  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

John  Randolph  spoke  for  the  discontended  Republicans; 
Campbell  defended  the  resolutions,  and  was  supported  by  the 
shameful  confessions  of  the  Republicans  that  they  were  afraid 
to  go  to  war.  The  decrees  and  orders  had  done  their  work, 
and  the  whole  South  for  the  moment  was  cowed  into  submis- 
sion. From  Jackson,  of  Virginia;  from  Willis  Alston  and 
Nathaniel  Macon,  of  North  Carolina ;  from  David  Williams, 
of  South  Carolina ;  from  George  Troup,  of  Georgia ;  from 
Richard  Johnson,  of  Kentucky,  came  language  such  as  had 
rarely  been  heard  in  the  halls  of  Congress.  Meet  the  navy  of 
Great  Britain  on  the  sea !  exclaimed  one.  The  very  idea  of 
such  resistance  is  too  idle  to  merit  consideration.*  If  we  have 
war,  said  another,  our  towns  will  share  the  fate  of  Copen- 
hagen, f  Arming  our  merchant  ships,  observed  a  third,  is  the 
same  thing  as  declaring  war ;  and  are  we  ready  to  plunge 
naked  and  unarmed  into  a  war  for  the  gratification  of  a  few 
bankrupt  commercial  speculators  ?  ^ 

During  five  days  the  debate  went  rambling  on  before  the 
first  resolution  passed  the  committee  unanimously.  The  Chair- 
man then  left  his  seat,  took  his  stand  before  the  Speaker,  re- 
ported what  had  been  done,  and  the  resolution  came  up  in  the 
House.  A  new  threshing  of  the  old  straw  followed.  The 
Berlin  decree,  the  Milan  decree,  the  orders  in  council,  the  kill- 
ing of  Pierce,  the  attack  on  the  Chesapeake,  the  constitution- 
ality of  the  embargo  laws,  the  conduct  of  New  England,  the 
hissing  at  the  London  Tavern  when  Sir  Francis  Baring  pro- 
posed the  toast,  The  President  of  the  United  States,  the  charge 
of  British  influence,  the  charge  of  French  influence,  the  burn- 
ing of  Copenhagen,  the  Spirit  of  Seventy-six,  the  rush  of 
speculators  into  the  market  to  buy  up  salt,  dry-goods,  molasses, 
sugar,  the  moment  the  embargo  was  laid — were  dwelt  upon 
over  and  over  again.  Never  had  there  been  heard  in  the 
House  a  debate  so  wandering,  so  confused,  so  full  of  repeti- 

*  Willis  Alston,  Jr.,  Annals  of  Congress,  1808-1809,  November  29,  1808,  p. 
556. 

f  John  G.  Jackson,  Annals  of  Congress,  1808-1809,  December  2,  1808,  p. 
657. 

$  George  M.  Troup,  Annals  of  Congress,  1808-1809,  November  80,  1808,  p, 
606. 


1808.  GALLATIN  CALLS  FOR  WAR.  321 

tion.  Rarely  had  there  ever  been  one  so  long.  That  on  the 
British  treaty  of  1794  was  ended  in  eighteen  days.  That  on 
the  repeal  of  the  Judiciary  Act  ran  on  for  one  month.  That 
on  the  twelfth  amendment  took  up  parts  of  eleven  days.  But 
that  on  Campbell's  report  was  not  finished  at  sunrise  of  the 
twentieth  day.  The  previous  question  was  then  unknown  to 
the  House  of  Representatives,  and  it  was  only  by  sitting  all 
Saturday  night  and  well  into  Sunday  that  a  vote  was  forced 
on  the  second  and  third  resolutions.  The  first  had  already 
passed  with  but  two  dissenting  votes ;  the  third  passed  with- 
out any ;  but  when  the  roll  was  called  for  the  vote  on  the  sec- 
ond, eighty-four  answered  yea  and  thirty  nay. 

That  the  wishes  and  policy  of  the  coming  administration 
might  not  be  misunderstood,  Gallatin  followed  up  the  Camp- 
bell report  with  another  in  which  he  spoke  more  plainly  still. 
As  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  it  became  his  duty  to  submit 
each  year  to  Congress  a  statement  of  receipts  and  expenses. 
In  making  this  in  1808  he  took  occasion  to  call  for  war. 
There  would  be,  he  said,  on  January  first,  1809,  in  the  treas- 
ury, in  some  form,  sixteen  millions  of  dollars.  The  expenses 
for  that  year  would  be  thirteen  millions,  leaving  a  surplus  of 
three  millions  to  defray  the  outlay  incident  to  preparation  for 
war.  "What  measures  should  be  taken  to  provide  funds  for 
the  ensuing  years  depended  on  what  course  was  pursued 
toward  the  belligerents  of  Europe. 

The  meaning  of  this  was  that  the  incoming  administration 
was  ready  for  war,  and  that,  if  Congress  would  give  it  power 
to  borrow,  the  fighting  should  be  done  without  laying  an  in- 
ternal tax  of  any  kind  whatsoever.  In  private  the  secretaries 
were  more  outspoken  still,  and  before  the  end  of  December 
their  friends  were  writing  home  that  a  plan  had  been  ar- 
ranged; that  the  embargo  was  to  be  partially  raised;  that 
a  Non-intercourse  Act  was  to  be  passed,  to  take  effect  on 
June  first;  and  that  meantime  warlike  preparations  should 
go  on. 

In  forming  this  plan,  both  Madison  and  Gallatin  were 

strongly  influenced  by  David  Montague  Erskine.      If  the 

trouble  was  ever  to  be  settled  peaceably,  the  hour,  he  thought, 

for  such  a  settlement  had  come.     The  change  in  the  adminis- 

»VOL.  iii. — 22 


322  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

tration  afforded  each  party  a  fair  opportunity  to  make  conces- 
sions, to  offer  explanations,  to  recede  from  embarrassing  posi- 
tions ;  and  a  few  concessions  were  all  that  were  needed.  In 
order  to  determine  if  the  United  States  would  make  her  share, 
he  went,  as  soon  as  the  election  was  over,  to  the  men  who 
would  form  the  next  administration,  held  long  conversations 
with  them,  and  reported  what  he  heard  to  Canning.  By 
Madison  he  was  given  to  understand  that  the  alternatives  were 
embargo  or  war ;  but  the  country  was  fast  coming  to  the  be- 
lief that  embargo  was  too  passive,  and  that  nothing  but  the 
difficulty  of  contending  with  France  and  England  at  the  same 
time  deterred  them  from  going  to  war.  What  Gallatin  told 
him  he  quite  misunderstood.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
he  represents  as  opposed  to  the  embargo  at  first,  but,  now  that 
it  was  on,  ready  to  continue  it  for  a  short  time  longer  before 
taking  up  arms.  He  represents  him  as  drawing  a  comparison 
between  the  outgoing  and  the  incoming  President ;  as  saying 
that,  while  Jefferson  hated  England,  Madison  bore  her  no  ill- 
will,  and  leaving  it  to  be  inferred  that,  in  consequence  of  this 
difference  of  feeling,  many  things  might  be  brought  about 
under  the  rule  of  the  new  President  which  could  not  have 
been  accomplished  under  the  old.  As  for  himself,  Gallatin 
would  gladly  see  every  kind  of  commercial  restriction  done 
away  with.  Nor  was  he  alone  in  this  wish ;  even  Congress 
shared  it.  England  had  complained  that  British  goods  and 
British  ships  of  war  were  shut  from  American  ports ;  but 
Erskine  must  have  observed  that  the  Committee  on  Foreign 
Relations  had  recommended  that  the  importation  of  French 
goods  should  be  forbidden  and  the  ports  shut  to  the  war-ships 
of  every  belligerent.  Did  this  look  like  partiality  for  France  ? 
Great  Britain  had  complained  that  subjects  of  the  King  were 
serving  in  American  ships.  Erskine  must  have  noticed  that 
it  was  now  proposed  to  exclude  all  foreign  seamen  from 
American  ships.  Great  Britain  had  complained  of  the  trade 
with  the  French  colonies;  but  he  could  say,  and  say  with 
safety,  that  the  new  administration  intended  to  give  up  all 
claim  to  a  colonial  trade  in  time  of  war  which  it  did  not  have 
in  time  of  peace.  All  these  communications,  Erskine  assured 
Canning,  were  made  by  Gallatin  with  a  sincere  desire  that 


1808.  EMBARGO  DAY.  323 

they  might  produce  peace.*  Long  afterward,  when  the  let- 
ters were  given  to  the  world,  Gallatin  declared  he  had  been 
cruelly  misrepresented,  denied  that  he  had  in  1S07  wished  for 
measures  more  vigorous  than  the  embargo,  denied  that  he 
had  ever  represented  Jefferson  as  hating  England  and  loving 
France,  or  the  United  States  as  ready  to  concede  the  Rule  of 
1756.f 

What  he  did  wish  to  accomplish,  and  what  he  and  his 
friends  undertook  to  carry  out,  was  to  continue  the  embargo 
till  after  the  close  of  Jefferson's  term,  secure  a  Non-importa- 
tion Act  against  both  belligerents,  but  to  be  suspended  in  favor 
of  whichever  one  would  first  repeal  her  commercial  restric- 
tions, and,  in  the  event  of  failure  to  secure  such  a  repeal,  a 
special  session  of  Congress  and  war.  The  first  step  toward 
this  end  was  taken  when  he  wrote  the  report  for  Campbell. 
Another  was  taken  when  in  his  own  annual  report  he  labored 
to  remove  all  fear  of  the  cost  of  war  ;  a  third  when  he  sought 
to  persuade  Erskine  to  frighten  Canning  into  concessions  by 
threats  of  war ;  a  fourth  when  he  asked  the  chairman  of  the 
Senate  Committee  for  a  Force  Act.  ^  Had  he  hated  the  em- 
bargo with  all  the  fervor  of  a  New  England  town-meeting  and 
been  as  bent  on  overthrowing  it  as  Pickering  or  Quincy,  he 
could  not  have  chosen  a  better  instrument  of  destruction  than 
the  bill  which  on  the  eighth  of  December  was  presented  to  the 
Senate  by  Giles,  and  on  the  twenty-second  of  December  was 
sent  by  the  Senate  to  the  House.  The  twenty-second  was  the 
anniversary  of  the  laying  of  the  embargo,  and  this  day  the 
New  England  Federalists  had  set  apart  as  one  of  general 
mourning.  At  Salem  the  seamen  met  at  sunrise  on  the  old 
North  Bridge,  where  the  British  regulars  had  once  been 
stopped,  and  fired  minute  guns  for  half  an  hour.  The  ships  in 
the  harbor  of  Beverly  displayed  their  flags  at  half-mast,  while 
the  crews  marched  about  the  streets  to  dismal  music.  At 
Providence  the  flag  on  the  great  bridge  flapped  at  half-mast 
all  day.  At  Boston  the  ships  were  shrouded  in  mourning. 
That  the  ballad-mongers  and  popular  poets  should  be  silent  at 

*  Erskine  to  Canning,  December  3  and  December  4,  1808. 

f  Gallatin  to  the  editor  of  the  National  Intelligencer,  April  21,  1810. 

J  Gallatin  to  William  B.  Giles,  November  24,  1808. 


324:  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

a  time  when  the  feelings  of  the  people  were  so  deeply  stirred 
was  impossible.  They  sent  forth  hundreds  of  verses,  some  of 
which  were  sung  at  the  meetings  on  Embargo  Day,  on  Wash- 
ington's Birthday,  and  on  the  fourth  of  March,  and  almost  all 
of  which  were  instantly  forgotten.*  One,  however,  has  been 

*  A  few  specimens  will  suffice.     At  Portland,  on   Embargo  Day,  the  people 
sung  a  song  entitled  The  Terrapin  Era : 

"  Teach  us  the  measure  of  our  wrongs, 

Ye,  who  embargoes  frame  ; 
Our  hearts  are  tuned  to  mournful  songs  ; 
Nor  help,  nor  hope  remain. 

"  What  shall  we  sailors  wait  for  then  ? 

Seek  bread  abroad  we  must ; 
Strangers  won't  let  us  seek  in  vain, 
Nor  disappoint  our  trust." 

At  Salem,  on  Washington's  Birthday,  the  song  was  more  cheerful : 

I. 

"  Oh,  dear,  what  can  the  matter  be  ? 
Dear,  dear,  what  can  the  matter  be  ? 
Oh,  dear,  what  can  the  matter  be  ? 

Th'  Embargo's  so  long  coming  off. 
It  promised  to  make  great  Bonaparte  humble, 
It  promised  John  Bull  from  his  woolsack  to  tumble, 
And  not  to  leave  either  a  mouthful  to  mumble, 
At  our  nod  to  make  their  caps  doff. 

n. 

"  Oh,  dear,  what  can  the  matter  be  ? 
Dear,  dear,  what  can  the  matter  be  ? 
Oh,  dear,  what  can  the  matter  be  ? 

Th'  Embargo  don't  answer  its  end. 
The  PEOPLE  are  left  in  the  dark  yet  to  stumble, 
Their  patience  wofti  out,  no  wonder  they  grumble, 
While  daily  they  see  their  prosperity  crumble, 
And  no  hope  their  condition  to  mend." 

Still  another  was  set  to  the  music  of  Highland  Daddy : 


"  Oh,  whither,  I  pray,  is  our  Highland  Daddy  bound  f 
Oh,  whither,  I  pray,  is  our  Highland  Daddy  bound  ? 
He'd  bound  to  his  plantation  with  fifty  thousand  pound, 
With  a  gun-boat  embargo'd  to  plough  his  native  ground. 


1809.  THE  FOKCE  ACT.  325 

rescued  from  oblivion  by  the  later  fame  of  its  author,  for  the 
hand  that  wrote  it  wrote  also  "  Thanatopsis  "  and  "  The  Flood 
of  Years."  * 

To  the  Republicans  the  day  was  one  of  rejoicing.  In  many 
towns  bands  of  them  dined  together  and  drank  confusion  to 
Federal  men  and  Federal  measures  and  long  life  to  Jefferson 
and  General  Embargo.  The  great  majority  which  the  measure 
commanded  in  Congress,  the  strong  resolutions  of  approval 
passed  by  the  Legislatures  of  eight  States,  their  success  in  the 
fall  elections,  had  turned  their  heads.  In  their  joy  they  pro- 
nounced the  embargo  the  settled  policy  of  the  country,  and 
called  loudly  for  more  stringent  laws  and  a  strict  enforce- 
ment. Unhappily,  they  were  heard,  and  on  the  fifth  of  JanuH  , 
ary,  after  a  stormy  sitting  which  lasted  till  six  in  the  morning, 
the  House  passed  the  Force  Act. 

The  first  section  made  it  a  high  misdemeanor  to  carry  or\ 
seek  to  carry  specie,  goods,  wares,  or  merchandise  out  of  the 
United  States  in  any  way  whatever.     The  second  declared  it 
unlawful  to  load  specie,  goods,  wares,  merchandise,  whether 
grown  at  home  or  made  abroad,  into  any  kind  of  water-craft    > 
till  leave  to  do  so  had  been  granted  by  a  collector.     Even 
then  the  lading  must  be  done  before  the  eyes  of  an  inspector,    I 
and  a  bond  of  six  times  the  value  of  ship  and  cargo  given  not  I 
to  sail  without  a  clearance.     The  fourth  named  the  grounds  I 
on  which  leave  to  land  could  be  given  to  craft  sailing  the  lakes  I 

ii. 

"  Oh,  what  will  he  do  with  his  philosophic  fogs  ? 
Oh,  what  will  he  do  with  his  philosophic  fogs  ? 
He'll  discover  more  salt  mountains,  he'll  breed  more  horned  frogs, 
He'll  improve  his  whirling  chair  and  call  woodchucks  prairie  dogs." 

*  The  Embargo  ;  or,  Sketches  of  the  Times.  A  Satire.  By  William  Cullen 
Bryant,  1808.  Even  Mr.  Bryant  has  his  fling  at  the  "  philosophic  "  taste  of  Jef- 
ferson. 

"  Go,  wretch  !  resign  the  Presidential  chair, 
Disclose  thy  secret  measures,  foul  or  fair ; 
Go,  search  with  curious  eye  for  horned  frogs 
'Mid  the  wild  wastes  of  Louisiana  bogs : 
Or  where  Ohio  rolls  his  turbid  stream 
Dig  for  huge  bones,  thy  glory  and  thy  theme." 


326  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

and  rivers,  bays,  sounds,  and  harbors  of  the  country,  and  fixed 
their  bond  at  three  hundred  dollars  the  ton.  The  ninth  be- 
stowed most  extraordinary  powers  on  the  Collector.  Should 
he  find  on  any  water-craft  specie,  or  goods  of  home  make  or 
growth,  he  was  to  seize  them.  Should  he  find  them  in  a 
wagon,  in  a  cart,  in  a  sleigh,  going  toward  the  seaboard  or  the 
boundary  line,  he  was  likewise  to  seize  and  hold  them  till 
bonds  were  given  not  to  take  them  out  of  the  United  States. 
The  tenth  declared  that  the  powers  given  to  the  Collector  by 
the  ninth  were  to  be  used  in  strict  obedience  to  such  rules  and 
orders  as  the  President  might  issue.  If  suit  were  brought 
against  the  Collector  and  judgment  entered  for  the  plaintiff, 
he  might  have  his  goods  again  by  giving  bonds.  The  eleventh 
authorized  the  President  to  use  so  much  of  the  army  as  he 
saw  fit  for  the  purpose  of  enforcing  the  act  on  land.  The 
thirteenth  gave  him  power  to  hire,  arm,  and  equip  thirty  ves- 
sels to  be  used  in  enforcing  the  law  off  the  coast. 

Since  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Bills  no  Act  so  infamous  had 
/"ever  been  passed  by  an  American  Congress.  "While  still  before 
I  the  House,  threatenings  and  murmurings  of  discontent  had 
1  been  heard  in  every  seaport  town  north  of  the  capes  of  Vir- 
ginia. But  the  moment  it  was  known  that  the  act  was  really 
law ;  that  every  lad  who  went  out  for  a  day's  fishing  might  have 
his  boat  stopped  and  his  lunch-bag  searched  by  any  collector 
who  hated  his  father ;  that  any  farmer  who  despised  French- 
men, Democrats,  Jefferson,  gun-boats,  and  dry-docks,  who  called 
the  embargo  a  Chinese  measure,  and  was  loud  in  condemning 
the  Terrapin  war,  might  be  stopped  in  the  highway  and  his 
wagon-load  of  grain  seized  by  some  spiteful  Republican  collec- 
tor ;  that  ships  could  be  boarded,  desks  broken  open,  and  spe- 
cie, the  hoardings  of  the  captain,  carried  off  by  men  eager  to 
share  it  with  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  ;  that  the  coast  was 
to  be  blockaded,  and  public  meetings  broken  up  by  armed  troops, 
the  moment  this  was  known,  all  New  England  was  in  rebellion. 
The  Federal  newspapers  in  which  the  law  was  published 
appeared  with  inverted  column-rules.*  There  were  long 

*  Boston  Gazette,  January  19,  1809.     New  England  Palladium,  January  17, 
1809. 


1809.  THE  FORCE  ACT  RESISTED.  327 

obituary  notices  on  liberty,  on  the  Constitution,  on  the  Union. 
Handbills  were  circulated  far  and  wide.  One,  called  "  The 
Constitution  Gone,"  has  been  preserved  for  us,  and  well  ex- 
presses the  feelings  of  the  hour.  Had  such  an  act  as  that 
to  enforce  the  embargo  reached  New  England  in  1776,  the 
whole  people,  the  writer  declared,  would  have  risen  up  in 
rebellion.  But  so  effectually  had  the  Tory  doctrines  of  pas- 
sive obedience  and  non-resistance  been  preached  of  late,  that 
the  people,  like  well-tamed  cattle,  bent  their  necks  to  the  yoke. 
This  law,  said  he,  deprives  you  of  the  inalienable  rights  of 
acquiring  property,  of  enjoying  it  as  you  wish,  and  dispos- 
ing of  it  at  your  pleasure,  of  trial  by  jury,  and  of  the  right 
of  resort  to  the  State  judiciary.  This  law  subjects  you  to  domi- 
ciliary visits,  to  the  seizure  of  property  without  legal  process, 
quarters  soldiers  on  you  in  time  of  peace,  and  gives  strangers 
the  right  to  open  and  read  your  secret  and  confidential 
papers.  Your  coasting  trade  is  gone ;  the  military  is  above 
the  civil  power,  and  you  have  nothing  left  but  civil  war  or 
slavery.  Such  appeals  were  hardly  needed,  for  organized  op- 
position began  weeks  before.  While  the  bill  was  still  before 
the  House  the  people  of  Bath,  in  Maine,  assembled  in  town- 
meeting  and  took  the  first  steps  toward  civil  war.  They 
called  on  the  General  Court  to  relieve  them  at  once,  and 
named  a  Committee  of  Correspondence  to  ask  for  like  action 
in  neighboring  towns,  and  a  Committee  of  Safety  to  warn  the 
men  of  Bath  of  any  attempt  to  enforce  the  embargo.*  So 
much  in  earnest  were  they  that  a  ship  was  armed,  loaded  with 
produce,  and  the  captain  ordered  by  the  people  to  sail.  The 
Collector,  knowing  what  was  coming,  hired  a  vessel,  put  some 
six-pounders  on  the  deck,  gathered  a  volunteer  crew,  and 
dropped  down  the  river  to  await  her  in  Quaheag  Bay.  Un- 
dismayed, the  sloop  came  on,  exchanged  shots,  and  went  to 
sea.f 

The  fishermen  of  Gloucester  were  next  to  act,  and  by  them 
like  resolutions  and  addresses  were  voted  and  like  committees 

*  The  meeting  was  held  December  27,  1808.     New  England  Palladium,  Janu- 
ary 3,  1809.     Boston  Gazette,  January  6,  1809. 
f  Boston  Gazette,  January  9,  1809. 


328  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

chosen.*  The  citizens  of  Hampshire  County  declared  that 
events  were  constantly  happening  which  tended  to  break  up 
the  Union,  and  demanded  that  such  things  stop.f  The  men 
of  Newburyport  voted  that  they  would  not  aid  or  assist  in 
executing  the  Force  Act ;  that  all  who  did  were  violators  of 
the  Constitution,  and  that  the  whole  system  was  unequal,  op- 
pressive, unconstitutional,  and  unjust4  In  towns  where  in 
September  the  Federalists  could  not  find  ten  men  to  demand 
that  the  select-men  should  warn  a  town-meeting,  they  had 
no  trouble  in  January  in  finding  a  hundred.  From  Augusta, 
from  Belfast,  from  Castine,  from  Alfred,  from  Bath,  from 
Portland,  from  Wells,  from  Hallowell,  from  Beverly  and  Sa- 
lem, ISTewburyport  and  Gloucester,  from  Boston  and  Cam- 
bridge, Hadley,  Brewster,  Sanford,  Northampton,  North  Yar- 
mouth, Amesbury,  Oxford,  New  Bedford,  Provincetown, 
Plymouth,  from  Marblehead,  Duxbury,  Somerset,  Taunton, 
Lynn,  Bolton,  and  Sterling,  from  a  hundred  towns,  resolutions 
came  pouring  in  upon  the  General  Court.  The  spirit  of  them 
all  was  British.  Each  complained  of  the  hostile  attitude  of 
the  administration  toward  Great  Britain  and  of  the  "cring- 
ing sycophancy"  of  its  conduct  toward  France.  Each  de- 
clared the  purpose  of  Jefferson  to  be  the  provocation  of  an 
English  war.  Each  deprecated  a  dissolution  of  the  Union, 
but  none  expressed  horror  at  the  idea;  not  a  trace  of  na- 
tional feeling  exists  in  one  of  them.  Gloucester  thought  that 
a  dissolution  of  the  Union  ought  not  to  be  resorted  to  till  all 
honorable  means  for  redress  had  been  tried.*  The  men  of 
Alfred  told  the  Republicans  that  nothing  but  "  a  fearful  look- 
ing for  of  despotism  could  induce  "  them  to  wish  for  a  sever- 
ance of  the  Union,  but  that  despotism  had  broken  the  bonds 
that  once  bound  the  colonies  to  Great  Britain,  and  that  what  a 
like  course  of  conduct  might  do  in  the  United  States  God  only 
knew.  I  Hadley  expressed  the  belief  that  a  perseverance  in 

*  Meeting  held  January  12,   1809.     New  England  Palladium,  January  17, 
1809. 

f  New  England  Palladium,  January  20,  1809. 
$  Boston  Gazette,  January  26,  1809. 

*  New  England  Palladium,  February  24,  1809. 
|  New  England  Palladium,  February  17,  1809. 


1809.  NEW  ENGLAND  TOWN-KESOLUTIONS.  329 

that  deadly  hostility  to  commerce  which  arose  from  jealousy 
of  ISTew  England  would  soon  break  up  the  Union — nay,  that 
self-preservation  would  soon  force  a  separation  of  the  States.* 
The  language  used  by  Hallowell  sounded  strangely  like  that 
which,  ten  years  before,  had  been  used  by  Jefferson  and  Madi- 
son in  their  rebellion  against  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws. 
The  object  of  men  in  forming  a  body-politic,  said  the  resolu- 
tion, is  the  safety  and  security  of  persons  and  property ;  but, 
in  giving  up  some  natural  rights  men  do  so  in  order  to  pro- 
tect those  retained  and  guaranteed  by  the  social  compact. 
Whenever,  therefore,  those  delegated  to  make  laws  transgress 
this  rule  and  exceed  the  powers  given  them  by  a  fair  construc- 
tion of  the  instrument  whence  they  derive  their  delegated 
powers,  such  laws  are  null ;  the  Embargo  and  Force  Act  are 
unwarranted  by  the  spirit  and  letter  of  the  Constitution,  are 
null,  and  the  State  is  in  duty  bound  to  interfere  and  arrest  the 
career  of  usurpation. 

So  hateful  was  the  law  that,  rather  than  execute  it,  the 
Collector  and  the  Deputy  Collector  of  the  port  of  Boston  re- 
signed. An  order  was  thereupon  issued  that  not  a  vessel  of 
any  sort  should  be  allowed  to  pass  Fort  Independence.! 

In  the  midst  of  this  outburst  of  popular  fury  the  General 
Court  met  at  Boston.  The  memorials  sent  up  by  the  towns 
were  at  once  referred  to  a  joint  committee,  and  a  long  report, 
a  set  of  resolutions,  and  a  bill  were  promptly  presented.  The 
bill  began  with  the  assertion  that  the  fourteenth  article  of  the 
Declaration  of  Rights  in  the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts, 
and  the  fourth  article  of  the  amendments  to  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  guaranteed  that  citizens  should  be 
secure  in  their  persons,  in  their  houses,  in  their  papers  and 
effects,  against  unreasonable  search;  that  no  warrant  should 
issue  unsupported  by  oath ;  and  that  every  place  to  be  searched 
and  every  article  to  be  seized  should  be  particularly  described 
in  the  warrant.  Any  person,  therefore,  who,  acting  under  the 
Force  Act,  entered  by  day  or  by  night  the  house  of  a  citizen 
of  Massachusetts  against  that  citizen's  will  and,  without  a  war- 

*  Baltimore  Evening  Post,  January  9,  1809. 
f  New  England  Palladium,  February  3,  1809. 


330  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

rant  duly  supported  by  oath,  searched  for  specie  or  for  arti- 
cles of  domestic  growth,  produce,  or  manufacture,  was  guilty 
of  a  high  misdemeanor,  and,  on  conviction,  might  be  punished 
with  fine  or  imprisonment.*  The  bill  passed,  but  the  Gov- 
ernor promptly  vetoed  it.  The  resolutions  were  four  in  num- 
ber. One  declared  the  Force  Act  to  be  unjust,  unconstitu- 
tional, oppressive,  and  not  legally  binding  on  the  citizens  of 
the  Commonwealth,  but  urged  all  persons  aggrieved  to  abstain 
from  forcible  resistance.  Another  recommended  a  memorial 
to  Congress.  The  third  announced  that  Massachusetts  was 
ready  "  to  co-operate  with  any  of  the  other  States  in  all  legal 
and  constitutional  measures  for  procuring  such  amendments  to 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  as  shall  be  judged  neces- 
sary." By  the  fourth  the  President  of  the  Senate  and  the 
Speaker  of  the  House  were  instructed  to  send  copies  of  the 
resolutions  to  the  sister  States,  f  Thus  was  a  call  for  a  con- 
vention of  New  England  States  put  forth  formally  ;  thus  was 
the  earnest  and  long-desired  wish  of  Pickering  attained.  In- 
deed, that  the  invitation  went  forth  when  it  did  is  to  be 
ascribed,  and  ascribed  solely,  to  the  work  of  Pickering  and 
his  friend.  No  memorial  had  asked  for  such  a  convention, 
no  town-meeting  for  a  moment  thought  of  seeking  help  be- 
yond the  General  Court ;  but  the  scheme  for  a  New  England 
confederacy,  which  the  defeat  of  Burr  and  the  death  of  Ham- 
ilton compelled  the  plotters  to  lay  aside  in  1804,  was  revived 
with  new  energy  in  1808.  Late  in  the  winter  of  that  year,  on 
the  eve  of  the  General  Court  elections,  Pickering,  it  will  be 
remembered,  addressed  a  long  letter  to  the  Governor  of  the 
State.  It  was  intended  to  be  laid  before  the  Legislature,  but 
Sullivan  refused  to  transmit  it,  and  a  copy  was  thereupon  given 
to  the  press.  In  that  letter,  the  plan  discussed  in  1804  in  pri- 
vate was  for  the  first  time  made  public  and  the  people  warned 
that  "  those  States  whose  farms  are  on  the  ocean  and  whose 
harvests  are  gathered  in  every  sea  should  immediately  and  seri- 
ously consider  how  to  preserve  them,"  and  assured  "  that  noth- 

*  The  Patriotic  Proceedings  of  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  during  the 
Session  from  January  26  to  March  4,  1809.  Also  Gazette  of  the  United  States, 
February  7,  1809. 

f  The  Patriotic  Proceedings  of  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts. 


1808.  RESISTANCE  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  331 

ing  but  the  sense  of  the  commercial  States,  clearly  and  em- 
phatically expressed,"  could  save  them.*  To  this  doctrine  the 
embargo  made  many  converts,  and,  as  the  day  for  the  meeting 
of  the  General  Court  drew  near,  men  who  could  never  before 
be  persuaded  to  listen  to  the  scheme  began  to  urge  its  speedy 
execution  and  to  ask  for  information  as  to  the  best  way  to 
carry  it  out.  Harrison  Gray  Otis  was  then  President  of  the 
Massachusetts  Senate,  yet  he  was  not  ashamed  to  write  for  in- 
structions to  Washington,  to  suggest  a  meeting  of  the  'com- 
mercial States  at  Hartford,  and  to  urge  Josiah  Quincy  to  find 
out  if  Connecticut  and  New  York  would  attend  and  what 
should  be  the  purpose  of  the  meeting,  f  Christopher  Gore 
wrote  in  like  strain  to  Pickering.:}:  The  answer  Pickering 
sent  back  laid  down  precisely  what  should  be  done.*  A  con- 
vention of  New  England  States  should  be  called,  delegates  ap- 
pointed, and  an  address  made  to  the  people.  Before  the  Gen- 
eral Court  rose  the  plan  was  carried  out  almost  to  the  letter. 
No  delegates,  indeed,  were  chosen,  but  the  address  was  made 
to  the  people  and  the  invitation  voted  by  the  Senate. 

What  Connecticut  would  do  was  soon  manifest.  Dearborn, 
acting  under  orders  from  the  President,  addressed  a  circular 
letter  to  the  governors  of  the  States  asking  them  to  name  in 
or  near  each  port  of  entry  some  officer  of  the  militia  having 
"  known  respect  for  the  laws  "  on  whom  the  collectors  could 
call  for  help.  Many  of  the  governors  complied  readily.  But 
the  Governor  of  Connecticut  was  Jonathan  Trumbull,  who 
flatly  refused  to  obey.  He  knew,  he  wrote  in  reply,  of  no  au- 
thority for  making  such  appointments,  and  he  promptly  assem- 
bled the  Legislature,  and  addressed  it  in  the  language  of  the 
Virginia  Resolutions  of  1798.  When,  said  he,  the  National 

*  A  Letter  from  the  Hon.  Timothy  Pickering,  a  Senator  of  the  United  States 
from  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  exhibiting  to  his  Constituents  a  View  of  the 
Imminent  Danger  of  an  Unnecessary  and  Ruinous  War,  addressed  to  His  Excel- 
lency, James  Sullivan,  Governor  of  the  said  State.     Boston,  1808,  pp.  11,  12. 

f  Harrison  Gray  Otis  to  Josiah  Quincy,  December  15,  1808.  Life  of  Quincy, 
by  Quincy,  p.  164. 

$  Christopher  Gore  to  Timothy  Pickering,  December  20,  1808.  Adams's  New 
England  Federalism,  p.  375. 

*  Timothy  Pickering  to  Christopher  Gore,  January  8,  1809.     Adams's  New 
England  Federalism,  p.  376. 


332  THE  LONG  EMBAKGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

Legislature  oversteps  the  bounds  prescribed  by  the  Constitu- 
tion, it  becomes  the  duty  of  the  States  to  interpose  and  pro- 
tect the  rights  of  the  people  from  the  assumed  powers  of 
Congress.  His  refusal  to  afford  military  aid  was  severely  felt, 
for  it  was  now  apparent  that,  if  the  embargo  was  to  be  en- 
forced, it  must  be  enforced  with  the  bayonet.  In  town  after 
town  in  New  England  acts  of  violence  took  place.  At  Plym- 
outh a  schooner  laden  with  seven  hundred  quintals  of  dry  cod- 
fish defied  the  Collector  and  put  to  sea.*  The  Wasp  captured 
her  off  Race  Point  and  sent  her  into  Provincetown  on  Cape 
Cod.  There  forty  men,  disguised  as  Indians,  boarded  her,  put 
the  crew  of  the  Wasp  on  shore,  and  again  she  went  to  sea.f 
At  Providence,  the  Custom-House  authorities  having  seized  a 
schooner,  the  sailors  loudly  declared  they  would  set  her  free. 
The  Governor,  in  obedience  to  the  Force  Act,  called  out  four 
companies  of  militia.  They  met,  but  met  only  to  assert  their 
hatred  of  the  Force  Act  and  their  determination  not  to  serve. 
Emboldened  by  this,  some  three  hundred  men  gathered  at  the 
wharf,  took  the  sloop,  bent  her  sails,  cut  a  way  through  the 
ice,  and  sent  her  to  sea.  $  For  obeying  the  circular  order  of 
the  President  and  detaching  the  militia,  Lincoln  was  censured 
by  the  Legislature,  and  his  acts  declared  irregular,  illegal,  and 
inconsistent  with  the  principles  of  the  Constitution.  At  New 
Haven  the  people  in  town-meeting  voted  that  the  enormous 
bonds  required  by  sections  two  and  four  of  the  Force  Act,  the 
powers  bestowed  on  collectors  by  section  nine,  and  on  the 
President  by  section  eleven,  violated  the  constitutional  guaran- 
tees that  excessive  bonds  should  not  be  required,  that  excessive 
fines  should  not  be  imposed,  and  that  the  people  should  be 
secure  in  their  persons  and  papers,  and  called  for  a  meeting  of 
the  General  Court.* 

Not  content  with  appeals  to  their  legislatures,  the  people 
had  also  memorialized  Congress.  All  through  January  peti- 
tions came  in  day  after  day  from  towns  in  New  Hampshire 
and  Massachusetts,  from  the  counties  of  Dutchess  and  Suffolk 

*  Boston  Gazette,  January  5,  1809. 
f  Boston  Gazette,  January  12,  1809. 

$  Gazette  of  the  United  States,  January  28,  1809. 

*  Gazette  of  the  United  States,  February  7,  1809. 


1809.  THE  EMBAKGO  LIFTED.  333 

and  Ontario  in  the  State  of  New  York,  from  the  city  of 
Albany,  from  three  wards  in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  from 
the  county  of  Westmoreland  in  Pennsylvania.  The  language 
was  much  the  same  in  each.  As  a  measure  of  coercion,  the 
embargo  was  pronounced  a  failure  ;  as  a  commercial  restric- 
tion, it  was  unnecessary  and  ruinous  ;  as  a  law,  the  act  to  en- 
force it  was  oppressive,  tyrannical  and  unconstitutional,  and 
ought  to  be  repealed.  x 

Made  bold  by  this  show  of  popular  wrath,  the  Federal  / 
representatives  determined  to  attack  the  embargo  once  more,  I 
and,  before  the  month  ended,  formally  moved  the  repeal.  The  J 
motion  laid  down  two  separate  propositions :  that  provisions 
ought  to  be  made  by  law  for  repealing  the  embargo  laws 
before  a  certain  day  of  a  certain  month ;  and  that  American 
citizens  ought  to  be  suffered  to  fit  out  privateers  to  prey  on 
the  commerce  of  England  and  France.  But  the  Republicans 
divided  the  motion,  and  the  debate  began  on  the  question, 
What  shall  be  the  day  and  what  shall  be  the  month  for  repeal- 
ing the  embargo?  Three  dates  were  moved.  Some  were 
for  June  first ;  some  for  March  fourth ;  some  for  February 
fifteenth,  1809.  Those  who  urged  the  fifteenth  of  February 
as  the  day  declared  that  they  did  so  because,  in  their  opinion, 
if  the  embargo  came  off  at  all,  it  ought  to  come  off  at  once. 
Every  honest  merchant  and  farmer  had  undoubtedly  been  a 
great  sufferer  by  the  laying  of  the  restriction.  Every  honest 
merchant  and  farmer  ought,  therefore,  to  be  benefited  as 
much  as  possible  by  lifting  the  restriction,  and  he  would  be 
much  benefited  by  lifting  it  at  once.  For  months  past  the 
embargo-breakers  had  been  hurrying  wagon-loads  and  boat- 
loads and  sleigh-loads  of  produce  over  the  border  to  Canada. 
This  had  been  paid  for  in  British  gold,  and,  stored  at  Mont- 
real, was  waiting  till  the  ice  broke  up  in  the  St.  Lawrence  to 
be  sent  abroad.  But  the  St.  Lawrence  was  frozen  long  after 
the  waters  of  the  rivers  and  harbors  of  the  United  States 
were  free.  If,  therefore,  the  embargo  was  taken  off  in  Febru- 
ary, the  men  who  had  obeyed  the  law  could  bring  their  flour, 
their  potashes,  their  bacon  to  market,  and  load  their  ships  and 
have  them  in  the  ports  of  Europe  and  the  West  Indies  while 
the  waters  of  the  St.  Lawrence  were  still  covered  thick  with 


334  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

ice.  Keep  on  the  embargo  till  June,  and  the  merchants 
would  find  the  foreign  market  glutted  with  the  produce  the 
law-breakers  had  carried  into  Canada  and  which  was  then  ice- 
bound at  Montreal. 

Those  who  favored  March  fourth  as  the  day  did  so  be- 
cause on  that  day  the  new  administration  would  begin ;  be- 
cause the  natural  embargo  laid  by  winter  on  the  rivers  and 
ports  of  the  North  would  then  be  over  and  no  unfair  ad- 
vantage given  to  the  ports  of  the  South ;  because  if  war 
followed  the  repeal,  and  there  was  good  reason  to  believe  it 
would,  the  summer  would  be  needed  to  seek  on  the  Plains  of 
Abraham,  and  in  the  fisheries  of  Newfoundland,  indemnity 
for  the  hurt  we  had  suffered  on  the  ocean. 

This  prospect  of  war,  it  was  answered,  is  a  good  reason  of 
itself  for  keeping  the  embargo  till  the  first  of  June.  "What 
is  now  our  condition?  Our  seaports  are  undefended;  our 
gun-boats  are  unmanned  ;  our  treasury  is  nearly  empty  ;  our 
army  is  not  yet  raised ;  and  must  we  not  have  an  army  ? 
Does  anybody  think  we  can  make  war  on  Canada  with  mili- 
tia ?  Does  not  everybody  know  that  it  is  a  question  whether 
under  the  Constitution  militia  can  be  sent  out  of  the  coun- 
try ?  Our  army  must  be  a  regular  army  and  well  drilled. 
Keep  on  the  embargo,  and  time  will  be  secured  for  all  these 
things.  Then,  when  we  are  ready  to  strike,  our  enemy  will 
perhaps  listen  to  our  last  offers  of  peace  and  repeal  his  or- 
ders. If  not,  we  shall  at  least  be  armed,  and  armed  in  a  just 
cause. 

To  this  must  be  added  a  fourth  class,  who  insisted  that  the 
embargo  must  not  be  repealed  at  all.  Was  Congress  a  parcel 
of  boys  that  it  should  pass  an  act  to  enforce  the  embargo  in 
January  and  repeal  both  Force  Act  and  embargo  in  February  ? 
"Was  the  Government  of  the  United  States  going  to  yield 
obedience  to  the  demands  of  factious  men  goaded  on  by 
avarice  and  British  gold  ?  Better  see  the  country  spill  its 
best  blood.  What  a  precedent  it  would  be  for  all  time  to 
come  if  a  handful  of  rebellious  citizens  are  suffered  to  rise 
in  opposition  to  laws  fairly  and  constitutionally  enacted! 
At  last,  after  a  rambling  debate  of  four  days,  the  motion 
to  fill  the  blank  in  the'  resolution  with  the  words  June  first 


1809.  THE  EMBARGO  LIFTED.  335 

was  lost  by  seventy  votes  to  forty-three.  By  precisely  the 
same  vote  it  was  then  carried  to  put  in  the  words  March 
fourth.  The  blank  being  thus  filled,  the  question  of  repeal- 
ing the  embargo  came  up  and  was  carried,  the  ayes  being  sev- 
enty-six. ^_ 

At  this  stage  of  the  debate  a  caucus  of  the  Republican 
members  was  held  and  three  things  decided  :  The  embargo 
should  be  repealed ;  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal  should  not 
be  issued;  and  non-intercourse  should  be  used  instead.  All — 
the  resolutions  before  the  Committee  of  the  Whole,  the  resolu- 
tion to  repeal  the  embargo,  that  to  arm  merchant  ships,  that  to 
establish  non-intercourse,  that  to  exclude  armed  vessels  from 
American  waters,  were  sent  to  the  Committee  on  Foreign 
Affairs  with  instructions  to  report  a  bill.  The  bill  came  in 
on  the  eleventh  of  February,  and  after  a  few  changes  passed 
each  house. 

The  act  shut  the  ports  of  the  United  States  to  the  public 
ships  of  France  and  England  on  the  day  of  its  passage,  closed 
them  to  private  ships  of  those  two  nations  on  the  twentieth  of 
May,  and  repealed  many  of  the  embargo  laws  on  the  fifteenth 
of  March.  On  that  day  it  ceased  to  be  necessary  for  captains 
of  coasters  to  load  their  ships  under  the  eye  of  an  officer  of 
the  revenue,  and  to  give  bonds  that  their  cargoes  would  really 
be  landed  in  the  United  States.  On  that  day  the  fishing  boats 
that  went  out  of  the  Narrows  for  bluefish  and  haddock,  or 
down  the  Delaware  in  search  of  shad ;  the  market  boats  that 
supplied  the  stalls  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia ;  the  craft 
that  sailed  the  waters  of  bays  and  rivers,  sounds  and  lakes  not 
adjacent  to  foreign  soil,  were  free  to  do  so  without  a  clearance. 
On  that  day  trade  was  again  revived  with  every  foreign  port 
save  those  of  France  and  England,  their  colonies,  their  de- 
pendencies, and  places  actually  under  their  flags.  With  such, 
ports  there  was  to  be  non-intercourse.  Nothing  could  be 
carried  to  them.  Nothing  could  be  brought  away.  To  go  to 
them  was  indeed  a  great  temptation.  The  law  therefore  pro- 
vided that  no  vessel  should  clear  for  any  port,  foreign  or  do- 
mestic, till  a  bond  had  been  given  that  it  would  not  be  en- 
gaged during  the  voyage  in  trade,  direct  or  indirect,  with  the 
forbidden  places.  Should  France  revoke  her  decrees,  or  Great 


336  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  CHAP.  xix. 

Britain  her  orders  in  council,  the  law  might  be  suspended  and 
jnrk>  renewed  by  proclamation  of  the  President.  The  law  was 
to  continue  in  force  till  the  end  of  the  next  session  of  Congress 
and  no  longer.  At  that  time,  too,  the  act  laying  the  embargo, 
the  three  supplementary  acts,  and  the  Force  Act,  were  all  to 
expire.  The  day  for  beginning  the  next  session  had  just  been 
fixed  as  the  fourth  Monday  in  May.  To  the  hopeful,  there- 
fore, it  seemed  not  unlikely  that,  before  the  leaves  were  again 
falling,  the  streets  of  the  great  seaports  would  once  more  be 
noisy  with  the  rumble  of  loaded  carts ;  that  the  exchanges 
would  once  more  resound  with  the  hum  of  busy  merchants ; 
that  the  books  of  the  coffee-houses,  so  long  unused,  would 
once  more  be  opened  for  the  reports  of  captains  and  super- 
cargoes ;  and  that  the  neutral  flag  of  the  United  States  would 
once  more  be  seen  in  the  ports  of  every  civilized  nation  on  the 
globe. 

Mr.  Jefferson  signed  the  bill  on  March  first.  Three  days 
(later  he  ceased  to  be  President  of  the  United  States,  and  James 
Madison  and  George  Clinton  took  the  oath  of  office  in  the 
new  Hall  of  Representatives.  The  idle  pomp,  the  foolish 
waste  of  time  and  money,  which  now  make  memorable  each 
inauguration-day  were  not  even  then  wanting.  All  the  mili- 
tia, we  are  told,  came  over  from  Georgetown  and  Alexandria 
to  escort  the  new  President  from  his  home  to  the  Capitol. 
Ten  thousand  people,  it  was  boastfully  said,  gathered  to  see 
the  procession  pass  by.  At  night  Jefferson  and  Madison  and 
a  distinguished  company  attended  an  inauguration-ball.  Be- 
yond the  confines  of  the  capital  the  day  was  little  noticed.  In 
a  few  towns  the  Federalists  assembled  at  dinners  and  drank  to 
the  hour  that  ended  the  career  of  Thomas  Jefferson  and  his 
General  Embargo.  A  few  journals  thanked  God  that  the  rule 
of  the  philosophic  President  was  over,  and  that  no  worse  man 
than  Madison  was  in  his  place.  But,  in  general,  the  event  was 
looked  on  as  no  cause  for  rejoicing.  The  succession  of  one 
Republican  President  by  another  Republican  President  was  no 
victory  for  the  Federalists.  Their  victory  was  the  lifting  of 
the  embargo,  brought  about  by  nothing  so  much  as  by  the  firm 
stand  taken  by  New  England  and  the  stout  fight  made  by  the 
minority  in  Congress.  The  leaders  of  this  minority  were  ac- 


1809.  MONTICELLO.  337 

cordingly  singled  out  to  be  the  recipients  of  high  honors.  To 
dine  "  the  virtuous  minority,"  to  toast  "  the  virtuous  minori- 
ty," became  the  delight  of  the  Federalists  of  every  city  in 
which  they  could  be  induced  to  stop.  From  the  moment  Con- 
gress rose,  the  homeward  journey  of  Pickering,  of  Quincy, 
of  the  New  England  delegation,  became  one  long  ovation.  At 
Washington,  at  Baltimore,  at  Philadelphia,  at  New  York,  at 
New  Haven,  at  Boston,  the  feasts  given  in  their  honor  were 
the  talk  of  the  day. 

"When  Pickering  and  his  companions  were  about  to  begin 
their  journey  eastward,  from  one  triumphant  reception  to  an- 
other, Jefferson  mounted  his  horse  and  made  his  way  through 
snow  and  sleet  to  his  beloved  Monticello.  Of  all  the  houses 
yet  built  by  man  none  surely  was  so  much  a  part  of  the  owner. 
What  the  shell  is  to  the  tortoise,  all  that  was  Monticello  to 
Jefferson.  The  structure  had  grown  with  his  growth,  and 
bore  all  over  it  the  marks  of  his  individuality  and  curious  in- 
ventive genius.  The  plan,  the  strange  mixture  of  styles  and 
orders,  the  bricks  that  formed  the  walls,  the  nails  that  held 
down  the  floors,  much  of  the  furniture,  was  the  work  of  his 
own  brain,  or  the  manufacture  of  his  own  slaves.  It  was  in 
the  fittings  and  furnishings  of  his  home,  however,  that  the 
mechanical  bent  of  his  mind  found  free  play,  and  carried  him 
close  to  the  bounds  of  eccentricity.  On  the  top  of  the  house 
was  a  weather-vane,  which  marked  the  direction  of  the  wind 
on  a  dial  placed  beneath  the  roof  of  the  porch.  Over  the 
main  doorway  hung  a  great  clock,  with  one  face  for  the  porch 
and  another  for  the  hall.  Cannon-balls  were  its  weights,  and 
one  of  them,  as  it  passed  down  the  wall,  turned  over  each 
morning  a  metal  plate  inscribed  with  the  day  of  the  week. 
Not  a  sleeping-room  contained  a  bedstead.  Deep  alcoves  in 
the  walls,  with  wooden  frames  for  the  mattresses,  did  duty 
instead.  His  own  apartment  was  separated  from  that  of  his 
wife  by  two  partitions,  wide  apart.  Through  these  was  cut  an 
archway,  taken  up  with  the  frame  which  supported  the  bed. 
One  side  of  the  bed  was  thus  in  the  room  of  Mrs.  Jefferson, 
and  the  other  in  the  room  of  her  husband.  Above  this  arch- 
way was  a  closet,  where  in  winter  were  stored  the  summer 
clothes  and  in  summer  the  winter  clothes  of  the  entire  family. 

VOL.  in. — 23 


338  THE  LONG  EMBARGO.  OHAP.  xix. 

In  his  library  were  his  "  whirligig  chair,"  his  tables  with  re- 
volving tops,  and  one  with  extension  legs,  to  be  used  for  writ- 
ing in  any  position,  sitting  or  standing.  Trivial  as  these 
things  seem,  they  are  not  to  be  forgotten  in  any  attempt  to 
judge  the  man. 


1809.  MADISON'S   SECRETARIES.  339 


CHAPTER  XX. 

DRIFTING   INTO   WAK. 

THE  sage,  as  the  Republican  journals  now  called  Thomas 
Jefferson,  having,  as  they  expressed  it,  "  retired  to  the  shades 
of  Monticello,"  the  administration  of  Madison  began  in  earnest. 
To  aid  and  advise  in  the  work  that  lay  before  him,  Madison 
selected  four  men  to  be  secretaries.  To  "William  Eustice,  who 
had  been  a  hospital  surgeon  during  the  Revolution,  and  a 
practising  physician  and  member  of  Congress  since  the  Revo- 
lution, was  intrusted  the  Department  of  "War.  Paul  Hamil- 
ton, who  had  once  been  a  Governor  of  South  Carolina,  was 
put  in  charge  of  the  few  sloops  and  frigates  and  the  great  fleet 
of  gun-boats  that  made  the  navy.  Robert  Smith,  of  Maryland, 
became  Secretary  of  State.  To  describe  this  man  as  the  free 
choice  of  Madison  would  be  unjust  to  the  President.  He  was 
forced  into  the  Cabinet  by  that  faction  of  the  Senate  which 
hated  Gallatin  and  looked  for  leadership  to  Duane  of  the 
Aurora,  and  to  Senators  Giles  and  Samuel  Smith.  They  had 
begun  by  demanding  for  him  the  Secretaryship  of  the  Treas- 
ury, and  Madison  had  thought  for  a  while  of  giving  way.  But 
Gallatin  would  accept  no  other  place ;  Madison  could  not  spare 
him,  and  Smith  was  given  the  Department  of  State.  Vain, 
talkative,  wanting  in  discretion,  ignorant  of  the  duties  of  his 
post,  he  was  wholly  unfit  for  the  great  office,  and  in  a  few 
weeks  the  President  was  forced  to  add  to  the  duties  of  an 
Executive  the  duties  of  a  Secretary  of  State. 

The  letters  which  Erskine  despatched  to  Canning  in  No- 
vember and  December,  1808,  had  produced  the  wished-for 
effect,  and  on  January  twenty-third,  1809,  Canning  wrote  his 
reply.  He  could  not  see,  he  said,  either  in  the  assurances  of 


340  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

the  Secretaries  or  in  the  debates  in  Congress,  any  sign  of  a 
better  feeling  toward  England.  Yet  he  would,  at  Erskine's 
suggestion,  issue  new  instructions  in  two  despatches  of  the 
same  date.  This  was  done  because  Erskine  was  sure  that  when 
Great  Britain  withdrew  her  orders  in  council  of  January  and 
November,  1807,  the  United  States  would  withdraw  her  re- 
strictions against  Great  Britain,  leaving  them  in  force  against 
France ;  because  he  was  sure  that  the  United  States  was  will- 
ing to  give  up  all  claims  to  a  colonial  trade  in  time  of  war 
which  she  did  not  enjoy  in  time  of  peace ;  and  because  he  was 
very  sure  that,  in  order  to  carry  out  the  embargo  and  stop 
American  citizens  trading  with  France,  Great  Britain  would 
be  free  to  capture  American  ships  engaged  in  such  trade. 
/  The  first  instruction  gave  Erskine  leave  to  offer  reparation  for 
CjQie  Chesapeake  affair.  But  he  was  on  no  account  to  do  so  till 
a  proclamation  had  been  issued  shutting  the  ports  to  French 
as  well  as  English  ships-of-war.  Then,  and  not  before,  he 
might  disavow  the  orders  of  Admiral  Berkeley,  offer  to  return 
the  men  taken  from  the  deck  of  the  Chesapeake,  and  promise 
compensation  to  the  widows  and  children  of  those  who  had 
fallen  in  that  shameful  fight.  But  he  was  charged,  and  the 
charge  was  most  explicit,  flatly  to  refuse  any  demand  for  fur- 
ther censure  on  Admiral  Berkeley.  The  Admiral  had  been  re- 
called, and  recall  was  punishment  enough.  Indeed,  further 
censure  was  impossible,  for,  only  a  few  weeks  before  the  de- 
spatch was  written,  the  Admiral  had  been  given  a  new  com- 
mand, far  more  honorable  than  the  old,  of  which  he  had  been 
deprived  in  America.  Looking  on  the  disavowal  and  the  re- 
turn of  the  sailors  as  concessions,  Canning  expected  that  the 
United  States  would  also  make  concessions,  and  what  these 
should  be  he  undertook  to  say.  There  must  be  a  disavowal  of 
Captain  Barren's  enlistment  of  British  deserters,  a  disavowal 
of  all  the  outrages  perpetrated  on  English  property  and  Eng- 
lishmen in  consequence  of  the  Chesapeake-Leopard  fight,  and 
a  promise  not  to  countenance  in  any  way  desertions  from  the 
English  army  or  navy. 

^The  second  despatch  was  concerned  with  the  orders  in 
council  of  January  and  November,  1807.  These,  Erskine  was 
'to  inform  the  United  States,  would  be  recalled  on  three  con- 


1809.  THE   AGREEMENT   WITH  ERSKINE.  341 

ditions.  The  three  were :  That  all  commercial  restrictions  of 
every  kind — embargo  laws,  non-intercourse  acts,  non-importa- 
tion acts,  proclamations  shutting  the  ports  to  ships-of-war — 
must  be  kept  in  force  against  France  and  repealed  as  to  Eng- 
land ;  that  all  claims  to  a  carrying  trade  in  time  of  war  not 
enjoyed  in  time  of  peace  must  be  renounced ;  and  that  Great  / 
Britain  should  have  the  right  to  seize  any  American  ship  found  / 
violating  the  commercial  restrictions  against  France.  These"^ 
accepted,  Erskine  was  to  promise  that  a  minister  should  be 
sent  to  Washington  with  full  power  to  consign  them  to  a  regu- 
lar treaty.  To  do  this  would  require  time,  and  time,  as  Can- 
ning knew,  was  to  be  taken  thought  of.  The  United  States 
might  wish  to  act  at  once.  The  United  States  might  wish  to 
again  enjoy  without  delay  the  benefits  of  the  old  trade  with 
England  and  with  the  English  colonies.  If  so,  Erskine  was 
empowered  to  agree  that,  whenever  the  United  States  should 
take  off  her  restrictions  against  England,  England  would  recall 
her  orders  in  council  as  to  the  United  States. 

These  despatches  came  early  in  April,  and  for  two  weeks 
the  conditions  and  the  offers  were  fully  debated.  Then,  all 
being  decided,  three  pairs  of  formal  notes  were  drawn  up,  a 
proclamation  written,  and  the  whole  made  public  in  a  National 
Intelligencer  "  Extra."  The  first  note  was  from  Erskine,  and 
bore  date  April  seventeenth.  His  Majesty,  the  note  set  forth, 
had  been  informed  of  the  disposition  shown  by  Congress  to 
treat  Great  Britain  in  precisely  the  same  way  as  she  treated 
the  other  belligerent  powers.  His  Majesty  had  thereupon  com- 
manded that,  when  Great  Britain  was  so  treated,  offers  of  repa- 
ration should  be  made  for  the  attack  on  the  Chesapeake.  In 
the  opinion  of  Erskine,  the  act  of  March  first,  repealing  the 
embargo,  laying  non-intercourse,  and  shutting  French  ships 
from  our  ports,  put  Great  Britain  and  the  belligerents  on  an 
equal  footing.  He  was  ready,  therefore,  to  disavow  the  con- 
duct of  Admiral  Berkeley,  to  restore  the  sailors  taken  from 
the  Chesapeake,  and  to  make  proper  provision  for  the  families 
of  the  slain.  Canning's  letter  bade  him  say  that  the  offer  of 
money  to  the  families  of  the  killed  was  an  act  of  "  spontaneous 
generosity  "  on  the  part  of  the  King.  But  Erskine  departed 
from  his  instructions,  dropped  the  words  "  spontaneous  gener- 


34:2  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

osity,"  and,  in  the  note  to  Smith,  put  down  the  offer  of  com- 
pensation as  part  of  the  reparation. 

What  seemed  the  answer  of  Smith,  but  was  really  the  an- 
swer of  Madison,  was  dated  the  same  day.  The  President,  he 
said,  accepted  the  offer.  But  he  wished  it  clearly  understood, 
in  the  first  place,  that  the  act  closing  the  ports  to  all  belliger- 
ents was  no  concession  to  Great  Britain,  but  was,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  note,  "a  result  incident  to  a  state  of  things 
growing  out  of  distinct  considerations,"  and,  in  the  second 
place,  that  while  the  President  forbore  to  insist  on  the  punish- 
ment of  Berkeley,  he  was  not  insensible  that  such  punishment 
"would  best  comport  with  what  is  due  from  his  Britannic 
Majesty  to  his  own  honor." 

On  the  morrow,  the  eighteenth  of  the  month,  Erskine  sent 
/""His  second  note.  The  offer  of  reparation  having  been  accepted, 
I  he  had  now  to  say  that  his  Majesty  would  send  an  envoy  ex- 
|  traordinary  to  reduce  all  the  matters  so  long  in  dispute  to  a 
j-  treaty.  Meanwhile,  his  Majesty  would  be  willing  to  recall  the 
/  orders  in  council  as  to  the  United  States  if  assurance  was  given 
that  the  United  States  would  renew  intercourse  with  Great 
Britain.  To  this  the  Secretary  promptly  answered  that  the 
President  would  gladly  meet  the  friendly  disposition  of  Eng- 
land, and  that,  should  the  orders  in  council  be  recalled,  a  procla- 
mation restoring  intercourse  would  surely  issue.  On  the  nine- 
teenth Erskine,  in  his  third  note,  promised  the  Secretary  that 
the  orders  in  council  would  be  recalled  on  June  tenth,  1809. 
The  agreement  having  been  thus  put  in  diplomatic  form,  the 
notes  and  a  proclamation  were  hurried  to  the  office  of  the 
National  Intelligencer  and  given  to  the  world. 

The  notes  informed  the  people  why  the  proclamation  was 
issued.  The  proclamation  informed  them  that  after  June  tenth 
they  would  be  once  more  free  to  trade  with  Great  Britain  and 
her  dependencies  and  with  every  foreign  port  not  subject  to 
the  flag  of  France.  When  this  was  known  in  the  seaboard 
towns,  the  rejoicings  and  the  activity  which  followed  the  par- 
tial repeal  of  the  embargo  were  more  than  redoubled.  The 
riggers  and  the  sailmakers  could  not  do  half  the  work  that 
was  offered.  Every  ship-yard  was  crowded  with  vessels  wait- 
ing for  a  chance  to  be  scraped  and  mended.  Long  columns 


1809.  TRADE  WITH  ENGLAND  EENEWED.  343 

of  notices  of  ships  for  charter  and  of  ships  for  sale  began  to 
appear  in  the  city  journals.  Merchants  began  to  seek  orders 
for  foreign  goods;  the  price  of  produce  for  export  went 
steadily  up,  and  in  three  weeks'  time  more  than  six  hundred 
and  seventy  craft  were  ready  to  sail  for  the  ports  and  colo- 
nies of  England.  Even  Madison  believed  that  the  day  of  de- 
crees and  embargoes  was  gone,  and  ordered  the  gun-boats 
dragged  up  on  the  beaches  and  the  detached  militia  to  be 
no  longer  held  in  readiness  to  serve. 

During  a  few  weeks  the  President  was  the  most  popular 
man  in  the  country.  It  was  now  easy  to  see,  the  Federalists 
said,  what  the  obstinacy  of  Jefferson  and  his  love  of  France 
had  cost  the  country.  Madison  had  not  been  six  weeks  Presi- 
dent, and,  lo !  the  whole  attitude  of  Great  Britain  toward  the 
United  States  had  changed.  Apologies,  and  concessions,  and 
commercial  benefits,  which  Jefferson  could  not  get  either  by 
treaty  or  by  threats,  were,  the  moment  his  successor  began  to 
rule,  graciously  offered.  In  this  laudation  most  of  the  Repub- 
licans concurred ;  but  there  were  some  who  did  not,  and  among 
them  were  many  of  the  friends  of  James  Monroe.  By  these 
men  it  was  claimed  that  the  President  had  gone  too  far.  The 
proclamation  was  illegal.  The  plain  intent  and  meaning  of 
the  law  was  that  when  Great  Britain  did  recall  her  orders  in 
council,  then  the  President  might  declare  intercourse  restored. 
.  Great  Britain  had  not  recalled  her  orders,  and,  if  Mr.  Erskine 
was  to  be  trusted,  she  would  not  recall  them  till  June  tenth. 
"What  power,  then,  had  Madison  to  issue  a  proclamation  be- 
fore the  tenth  of  June  ?  What  power  had  he  to  issue  it  at 
all  till  Mr.  Erskine  assured  him  that  the  orders,  not  would  be, 
but  had  been  recalled  ?  Perhaps  it  would  be  well  for  Con- 
gress to  look  into  this  matter  when  it  met  in  May.  This,  in- 
deed, was  done. 

The  extra  session  had  been  called  that  the  country,  if  need- 
ful, might  be  made  ready  for  war.  But  Madison  in  his  mes- 
sage assured  Congress  that  there  would  be  no  war ;  that  inter- 
course was  to  be  restored,  that  the  gun-boats  were  laid  up, 
that  the  militia  had  been  discharged ;  and  Congress,  after  sit- 
ting one  month,  adjourned.  In  the  course  of  that  month,  how- 
ever, some  debates  arose  and  some  acts  were  passed  which  de- 


344  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

serve,  at  least,  to  be  noticed.  The  first  of  these  debates  took 
place  in  the  House,  and  was  brought  on,  as  such  discussions 
so  often  were,  by  a  motion  made  by  John  Randolph.  The 
House  had  just  finished  sending  the  suggestions  in  the  Presi- 
dent's message  concerning  foreign  affairs,  the  army  and  navy, 
the  protection  of  manufactures,  and  the  fortification  of  the 
seaport  towns  to  the  proper  committees,  when  Randolph  rose 
in  his  place  and  began  a  long  speech  on  the  behavior  of  the 
President.  He  reminded  his  hearers  how,  in  the  good  old 
times  when  Federalists  held  sway,  the  President  used  to  come 
down  to  the  building  where  the  Congress  sat  and  open  each 
session  with  a  speech;  how  each  House  would  then  frame 
an  answer  and,  with  its  officers  at  its  head,  tramp  through  the 
streets  to  the  President's  dwelling,  there  to  deliver  the  answer 
and  there  to  partake  of  his  cake  and  wine ;  how  Jefferson  had 
changed  all  this,  had  swept  away  the  idle  imitation  of  the 
English  King,  and,  in  the  place  of  the  speech,  had  put  a  writ- 
ten message  to  which  no  answer  was  ever  made.  This  change 
he  thought  most  sensible ;  but  while  it  had  done  away  with 
a  foolish  ceremony  it  had  also  done  away  with  something  that 
was  not  a  foolish  ceremony.  Framing  the  answer  had  given 
to  the  minority  a  fine  chance  to  praise  or  blame  the  measures 
of  the  administration.  The  loss  of  this  chance  was  much  to 
be  lamented.  There  were  times — and  the  present  was  one  of 
them — when  it  became  the  duty  of  the  House  to  give  an  opin- 
ion on  public  affairs.  There  were  in  the  nation,  nay,  in  the 
House,  numbers  of  men  who  blamed  the  President  for  issuing 
the  proclamation.  If  this  was  the  belief  of  a  majority  of  the 
House,  the  President  ought  to  be  plainly  told  so.  If  the  ma- 
jority approved  of  his  action,  he  was  entitled  to  know  it,  and 
to  the  support  and  comfort  such  knowledge  would  give  him. 
Randolph  moved,  therefore,  that  the  promptness  and  frank- 
ness with  which  the  President  had  met  the  overtures  of  Great 
Britain  were  approved  by  the  House. 

To  have  made  a  motion  more  hateful  to  the  majority  would 
have  been  hard.  That  the  statement  was  true,  all  admitted ; 
but  the  resolution  was  pronounced  ill-timed,  in  bad  taste,  out 
of  order,  not  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  House.  By  what 
article,  by  what  section  of  the  Constitution,  it  was  asked,  is 


1809.  CONDUCT  OF  MADISON  DISCUSSED.  345 

the  House  given  power  to  discuss,  to  praise  or  blame  the  con- 
duct of  the  Executive  ?  We  have  authority  to  pass  laws  and 
to  do  what  is  necessary  to  pass  laws.  We  may  censure,  pun- 
ish, expel,  judge  of  the  election  of  a  fellow-member.  It  is 
our  duty  to  impeach  all  officers  of  the  United  States  who  be- 
tray their  trusts.  These  three  classes  make  the  sum  total  of 
our  power.  Does  the  resolution  of  the  member  from  Virginia 
fall  within  either  of  these  classes  ?  Certainly  not.  It  is  not 
the  basis  of  a  law,  and  cannot,  therefore,  fall  within  the  first 
class.  It  does  not  call  for  the  punishment  of  any  member  or 
question  the  right  of  any  one  to  his  seat,  and  cannot,  therefore, 
fall  within  the  second  class.  As  the  purpose  of  the  resolution 
is  to  praise,  not  to  impeach  the  President,  it  does  not  fall 
within  the  third  class,  and  is  therefore  outside  the  powers  of 
the  House  and  wholly  unconstitutional. 

The  debate  over,  the  House  adjourned.  The  resolution 
thus  became  unfinished  business,  and,  as  such,  was  promptly 
called  up  by  Randolph  on  the  morrow.  The  House,  out  of 
humor  with  him,  divided  equally,*  and  the  Speaker,  voting 
no,  refused  to  consider  the  matter.  But  Randolph  was  not  to 
be  put  down.  Day  after  day  he  called  it  up.  Day  after 
day  it  went  over  as  unfinished  business,  till  the  better  part 
of  a  week  had  been  wasted  in  idle  debating.  Then  it  was  laid 
on  the  table  forever.  The  opposition  was  formed  of  two 
sorts  of  men — those  who  believed  the  resolution  improper,  and 
those  who  believed  both  the  motion  of  Randolph  and  the 
action  of  Madison  to  be  unconstitutional.  Those  who  believed 
it  improper  gave  four  reasons  for  their  opinions :  It  would 
turn  the  House  into  a  council  of  censors  to  try  the  conduct  of 
the  President ;  it  would  reflect  on  the  conduct  of  the  adminis- 
tration just  ended  ;  it  would,  if  adopted,  have  a  bad  effect  on 
the  mind  of  Madison;  it  was  without  precedent.  Of  those 
who  stood  out  on  constitutional  grounds,  not  a  few  gave  as 
their  reason  that  the  House  had  no  authority  to  approve  or 
disapprove  the  conduct  of  the  President.  These  were  asked 
where  the  House  got  constitutional  authority  to  thank  the 
Speaker  at  the  end  of  each  session,  to  appoint  and  pay  a  chap- 

*  Fifty-four  to  fifty-four. 


346  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

lain,  or  to  furnish  each  member  with  three  newspapers.  If 
express  authority  was  not  needed  to  do  these  things,  it  surely 
was  not  needed  in  order  to  approve  the  conduct  of  the  Presi- 
dent. Those  who  held  that  the  proclamation  was  illegal  fell 
back  on  the  language  of  the  Non-intercourse  Act  of  the  previous 
March.  The  words  of  the  act  were :  "  In  case  either  France 
or  Great  Britain  shall  so  revoke  or  modify  their  edicts  as  that 
they  shall  cease  to  violate  the  lawful  commerce  of  the  United 
States,"  the  President  shall  "declare  the  same  by  proclama- 
tion, after  which  the  trade  of  the  United  States  may  be  re- 
newed with  the  nation  so  doing."  Did  not  this  mean,  they 
asked,  that  the  fact  must  exist  before  he  could  proclaim  it? 
An  assurance  had,  indeed,  been  given  that  the  orders  would  be 
recalled.  But  where  was  the  authority  to  accept  the  assurance 
for  the  fact  ?  Far  be  it  from  them  to  blame  him  for  his  mis- 
construction. And  as  far  be  it  from  them  to  approve.  He 
had  kept  the  spirit,  but  broken  the  letter  of  the  law,  and  the 
best  policy  of  the  House  was  to  say  nothing,  and  by  a  law 
legalize  what  he  had  done.  After  four  days  of  such  discus- 
sion the  motion  to  postpone  indefinitely  was  laid  on  the  table. 

And  now  followed  a  series  of  debates  on  all  manner  of 
subjects.  On  the  New  Orleans  batture ;  on  the  expedition  of 
Miranda ;  on  the  expediency  of  remunerating  the  sufferers 
under  the  Sedition  Act  of  1798 ;  on  selling  the  gun-boats ;  on 
protecting  manufactures ;  on  continuing  non-intercourse  with 
France.  The  House  was  still  wrangling  over  the  batture  when 
the  hour  for  final  adjournment  came,  and  nothing  was  done 
for  want  of  a  quorum.  The  petition  of  the  thirty-six  prisoners 
taken  with  Miranda,  and  then  languishing  in  the  dungeon 
at  Carthagena,  produced  some  bad  feeling  in  the  House  and  a 
duel  between  two  members  out  of  doors.  The  sufferers  under 
the  Sedition  Act  were  not  remunerated ;  the  gun-boats  were 
not  sold ;  no  protection  was  given  to  manufactures ;  but  the 
old  Non-intercourse  Act  was  greatly  amended. 

While  Congress  was  busy  debating  these  questions  the  tenth 
of  June  arrived,  and,  after  almost  eighteen  months'  cessation, 
trade  was  once  more  resumed  with  Great  Britain  and  her  de- 
pendencies. This  happy  return  to  peaceful  ways  was,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  Federalists,  the  fruit  of  their  labor,  the  work  of 


1809.          REJOICINGS  OVER  RENEWAL  OF  TRADE.  347 

their  hands.  They  determined  that  the  tenth  of  June  should, 
in  consequence,  be  a  white  day,  and  set  it  apart  as  that  on 
which  to  give  public  expression  to  the  joy  and  satisfaction  they 
felt  that  the  United  States  was  at  last  relieved  from  the  para- 
lyzing effects  of  Jefferson's  non-intercourse  and  embargo.  At 
Boston,  at  Salem,  at  Providence,  there  was  bell-ringing  and 
cannonading  and  feasting.  At  New  Haven  there  was  a  grand 
parade.  At  Philadelphia  there  was  a  dinner  at  the  City  Hotel. 
But  most  of  the  Federalists  went  down  the  Delaware  in  a  fleet 
of  boats,  and  kept  the  day  at  Gloucester  Point.  At  New  York 
there  was  a  fine  dinner  at  the  Tontine  Coffee-House,  and  so 
long  a  list  of  toasts  and  volunteers  that  few  of  the  revellers 
rose  from  the  table  sober.  But  the  day  was  not  observed  so 
hilariously  as  had  been  intended,  for,  on  the  eighth  of  June, 
the  packet  Pacific,  from  England  in  thirty-one  days,  arrived 
at  New  York  with  news  that  a  aew  order  in  council,  which 
seriously  affected  the  interests  of  the  United  States,  had  been 
issued  late  in  April.  In  consequence  of  these  tidings,  the 
committee  appointed  by  the  city  corporation,  the  General  Re- 
publican Committee,  and  the  Tammany  Committee,  to  make 
arrangements  for  the  celebration  of  the  tenth,  reported  that  it 
would  be  inexpedient  to  have  any  public  rejoicings,  and  re- 
called their  plan.* 

The  news  was  but  half  told.    The  old  orders  of  November^ 
1807,  were  indeed  recalled.     But,  in  their  stead,  others  were  I 
issued  laying  a  blockade  on  the  ports  of  Holland,  France,  and  I 
northern  Italy.f     As  this  became  known,  the  joy  and  confij 
dence  exhibited  on  June  tenth  gave  way  to  a  well-grounded 
alarm.     How,  it  was  asked,  was  it  possible  to  reconcile  the 
position  of  England,  as  set  forth  in  the  notes  of  Erskine  on  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  of  April,  with  her  position  as  set 
forth  in  the  orders  of  the  twenty-sixth  of  April  ?    Was  Can- 
ning tricky  ?     Could  Erskine  really  have  been  authorized  to 
act  as  he  had  ?    If  so,  why,  at  the  very  time  he  was  agreeing 
to  open  the  ports  of  Holland,  did  Canning  deliberately  shut 
them?     So  great  was  the  distrust  aroused  in  Congress  that 

*  Baltimore  Evening  Post,  June  12,  1809. 

f  Orders  in  Council,  April  26,  1809.     American  State  Papers,  vol.  iii,  p.  241. 


348  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

Erskine  made  haste  to  assure  the  Secretary  of  State  that  the 
new  orders  had  no  connection  with  the  agreement,  which 
would  be  punctually  fulfilled.*  Never  was  man  more  mis- 
taken. 

The  report  of  what  had  been  done  reached  Canning  on 
May  twenty-second,  was  instantly  laid  before  the  King,  and 
the  agreement  as  promptly  disavowed.  Indeed,  at  the  very 
moment  that  Erskine  was  writing  to  assure  the  Secretary  that 
the  new  orders  meant  nothing  and  that  trade  would  be  made 
free,  a  letter  recalling  him  was  on  the  sea.  A  note  was  next 
lespatched  to  Pinckney,  with  a  copy  of  an  order  in  council  to 
the  effect  that  any  merchant-ship  which,  in  consequence  of 
the  proclamation,  should,  between  April  nineteenth  and  July 
twentieth,  leave  the  United  States  for  ports  blockaded  by  the 
orders  of  January  and  November,  180Y,  should  not  be  molested. 
Pinckney  was  further  informed  that  all  observation  on  the 
affair  would  be  made  at  Washington,  through  a  minister  soon 
to  be  sent  out  in  Erskine's  place. 

To  Erskine  three  reasons  for  the  disavowal  were  given : 
He  had  left  out  a  preliminary  of  great  importance.  He  had 
departed  from  the  terms  of  his  instructions.  He  had  accepted 
and  transmitted  a  note  containing  language  such  as  no  minis- 
ter of  his  Majesty  ought  ever  to  have  received. 

The  important  preliminary  omitted  was  a  requirement,  be- 
fore negotiation  began,  that  French  ships  should  be  forbidden 
to  enter  American  ports,  and  that  those  already  in  should  be 
ordered  out.  The  departure  from  instructions  consisted  in 
not  demanding  that  the  proclamation  of  July  second,  1807", 
should  be  recalled,  and  in  treating  as  a  positive  obligation  his 
Majesty's  gracious  offer  of  bounty  to  the  families  of  the  seamen 
killed  on  the  Chesapeake,  which  was  purely  an  act  of  "  spon- 
taneous generosity."  He  had  suffered  the  dignity  of  his  sov- 
ereign to  be  degraded  when  he  received  from  Smith  the  note 
telling  him  what  "  would  best  comport  with  what  is  due  from 
his  Britannic  Majesty  to  his  own  honor." 

Though  the  letters  of  Canning  were  written  on  the  twenty- 

*  Erskine  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  June  15,  1809.     American  State  Tapers, 
vol.  iii,  p.  297. 


1809.  EKSKINE'S  AGREEMENT  DISAVOWED.  349 

second,  twenty-third,  and  thirtieth  of  May,  they  did  not  reach 
Erskine  till  July  twenty-fifth.  English  newspapers  of  May 
twenty -fifth,  received  as  early  as  July  twenty-first,  made  known 
to  the  people  the  official  disavowal  of  Erskine,  and,  as  the  news 
spread  along  the  seaboard,  the  scenes  of  the  early  days  of  the 
embargo  were  again  enacted.  Ships  were  loaded  with  the 
utmost  speed  and  hurried  to  sea,  lest  orders  should  come  to 
the  collectors  to  stop  them.  But  two  weeks  passed  before"\ 
Madison  issued  a  second  proclamation  recalling  the  first  and 
renewing  non-intercourse  with  Great  Britain.  With  copie&J 
of  the  proclamation  went  circular  letters  from  Gallatin  to  the 
collectors  of  the  ports.  They  were  reminded  that  the  Non- 
intercourse  Act  of  March  first  was  once  more  in  force,  but  were 
instructed  to  consider  it  suspended  as  to  three  classes  of  ships. 

For  a  while  the  Federalists  insisted  that  the  disavowal  was 
only  temporary ;  that  Great  Britain  would  stand  by  the  bar- 
gain ;  that  the  new  Minister  would  make  all  things  right  in 
the  end.  But  even  they  lost  heart  when  it  was  announced  that 
Francis  James  Jackson  had  been  chosen  for  the  place. 

Early  in  September,  Jackson,  with  his  wife  and  his  chil- 
dren, his  servants,  his  horses,  his  carriages,  and  his  plate,  land- 
ed at  Alexandria  and  hurried  on  to  Washington  without  delay. 
Erskine  soon  after  departed  and  boarded  an  English  war-ship 
then  at  anchor  in  Hampton  Roads.  She  was  to  carry  him 
back  to  England,  and  would  sail,  it  was  announced,  with  the 
first  fair  wind.  But  so  many  fair  winds  came  and  went  and 
left  the  ship  at  anchor  that  it  began  to  be  whispered  that  she 
was  waiting  not  for  wind,  but  for  despatches.  What,  it  was 
next  asked,  can  Mr.  Jackson  be  doing  ?  Has  he  really  come 
as  a  messenger  of  peace  ?  Will  the  President  listen  to  his 
excuses  ?  Is  non-intercourse  to  be  taken  off  ?  The  Republican 
prints  solemnly  declared  that  he  was  doing  nothing  and  could 
do  nothing,  and  soon  had  the  satisfaction  of  printing  a  docu- 
ment in  which  as  much  was  admitted  over  his  own  hand. 

The  document  was  really  an  appeal  to  the  American  peo- 
ple ;  but  it  appeared  in  the  form  of  a  circular  letter  to  the 
British  consuls  in  the  United  States.  The  consuls  were  in- 
formed that  Jackson  had  changed  his  residence  from  Wash- 
ington to  New  York ;  that  he  had  done  so  because  the  Secre- 


350  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

tary  of  State  would  no  longer  have  communication  with  him, 
and  that  communication  had  been  broken  off  because  of  cer- 
tain facts  it  had  been  his  unpleasant  duty  to  state  and  adhere 
to.  One  of  these  facts  Secretary  Smith  had  admitted.  This 
was  that  the  American  Government  knew  of  the  three  condi- 
tions on  the  acceptance  of  which  by  the  United  States  Great 
Britain  would  recall  the  orders  in  council  of  January  and  No- 
vember, 1807.  The  other  fact,  that  they  were  the  only  condi- 
tions on  which  the  orders  would  be  recalled,  was  known  to 
him  by  his  instruction,  and,  by  insisting  on  this,  he  had  offend- 
ed the  American  Government. 

The  people  for  a  while  were  at  a  loss  to  know  just  what 
this  circular  letter  meant.  It  was  clear,  however,  that  a  seri- 
ous breach  had  taken  place,  and  this  was  enough  for  the  Re- 
publican journals.  Without  waiting  to  learn  the  cause  they 
turned  on  the  English  Minister  and  abused  him  roundly.  They 
nicknamed  him  Copenhagen  Jackson ;  they  warned  him  not 
to  play  his  tricks  on  the  Government  of  a  free  people,  and 
pronounced  his  letter  to  the  consuls  a  poor  imitation  of  Genet's 
appeal  to  the  people.  Affecting  alarm  at  these  threats,  he  ap- 
plied to  the  Secretary  for  passports  or  letters  of  protection  for 
his  servants,  his  family,  and  himself.  This  request  was  made 
because  he  had  already  been  insulted  by  the  people  of  Hamp- 
/  ton  and  because  the  newspapers  were  daily,  in  his  opinion, 

( .urging  the  people  to  do  acts  of  violence  to  his  person. 

The  Federalist  press,  with  equal  folly,  warmly  defended 
him.  Their  readers  were  advised  to  remember  that  there  were 
two  sides  to  every  quarrel.  Jackson  might,  perhaps,  have  been 
guilty  of  flinging  back  some  of  the  insolence  that  had  probably 
been  meted  out  to  him ;  but  that  he  had  deliberately  insulted 
the  Government  remained  to  be  proved.  Just  men  would  do 
well,  therefore,  to  suspend  judgment  till  Congress  met,  when 
the  whole  correspondence  would  surely  be  called  for.  No  call 
was  necessary,  for,  when  the  eleventh  Congress  met,  the  corre- 
spondence accompanied  the  message. 

I  "Jackson  had  left  England  instructed  to  give  no  reasons  for 
the  disavowal  of  the  Erskine  agreement ;  to  offer  no  repara- 
tion for  the  Chesapeake  outrage  till  the  President  gave  a  writ- 
ten assurance  that  the  proclamation  of  July,  1807,  was  recalled ; 


1809.  THE   QUARREL  WITH  JACKSON.  351 

to  offer  nothing  regarding  the  recall  of  the  orders  in  council,  A 
but  to  receive  any  proposals  from  the  United  States  that  might  I 
comprehend  the  three  conditions  imposed  on  Erskine ;  to  in-  / 
sist  on  the  enforcement  of  the  rule  of  1756.     That  he  should/ 
ever  have  left  England  thus  instructed  is  amazing.     Failure, 
and  nothing  but  failure,  awaited  him,  and  this  Canning  must 
have  known.    Nevertheless,  he  set  out,  and,  on  reaching  "Wash- 
ington, found  that  the  President  had  not  returned  from  his  Vir- 
ginia plantation.     The  month  of  September  was  accordingly 
spent  in  riding  over  the  country  about  "Washington,  reading 
the  correspondence  of  Erskine,  and  making  friends.     On  Oc- 
tober first  Madison  returned  and  the  official  interviews  began. 
Smith  was  instructed  to  sound  Jackson  and  find  out,  if  possi- 
ble, what  his  instructions  were ;  but,  after  two  fruitless  con- 
versations, Madison  took  the  matter  out  of  the  hands  of  Smith 
and  dealt  with  Jackson  himself.     As  the  President  could  not 
openly  appear  in  the  negotiations,  Smith  was  instructed  to  for- 
ward to  the  British  Minister  a  long  note  written  by  Madison. 
Jackson  was  reminded  of  the  agreement  with  Erskine,  of  ffie~\ 
disavowal  by  England,  and  of  the  recall  of  Erskine,  with  every 
mark  of  displeasure.     He  was  told  that,  under  the  circum-   I 
stances,  nothing  was  more  reasonable  than  to  expect  from  him  / 
a  prompt  and  full  explanation  of  this  conduct.    He  was  assured 
that  the  President  heard  with  great  regret  that  he  had  no  in-  / 
structions  to  make  any  explanation.     He  was  asked  if  the  / 
President  was  to  understand  that  in  the  matter  of  the  Chesa- 
peake he  was  merely  to  offer  a  note  of  satisfaction  not  to  be 
signed  and  delivered  till  he  saw  and  approved  the  answer  of  I 
the  United  States ;  that  he  was  not  to  make  any  proposition 
to  revoke  the  orders  in  council ;  and  that  England  had  no  in-  j 
tention  to  revoke  them  unless  the  United  States  would  enforce  I 
non-intercourse  against  France,  suffer  the  navy  of  England  to  | 
capture  American  ships  evading  this  law,  and  give  up  all  claim  < 
to  a  carrying  trade  in  time  of  war  which  she  had  not  enjoyed  ' 
in  time  of  peace. 

He  was  then  informed  that,  to  avoid  the  misconception 
sometimes  incident  to  oral  proceedings,  it  would  be  well  to 
carry  on  all  future  negotiations  in  writing. 

Jackson  answered  in  great  heat,  protested  against  such 


352  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

treatment,  and  declared  there  did  not  exist  in  the  annals  of 
diplomacy  a  precedent  for  turning  from  oral  to  written  com- 
munications at  so  early  a  stage  in  negotiations.  Passing  to 
Madison's  letter,  he  observed  that  there  was  no  need  for  any 
explanation  of  the  disavowal.  Reasons  had  been  given  to 
Pinckney  at  London,  and  had  been  sent  to  Erskine  at  Wash- 
ington. The  belief,  so  often  expressed  by  the  Secretary  in 
conversation,  that  Erskine  had  two  sets  of  instructions,  and 
that  the  agreement  had  been  made  in  accordance  with  one  of 
them,  he  pronounced  unfounded.  Erskine  had  but  one  set. 
These  he  had  greatly  exceeded,  and,  Jackson  plainly  intimated, 
had  done  so  with  the  connivance  of  the  Secretary. 

Madison  took  a  week  to  reply,  and  then  sent  back  one  of 
the  best  state  papers  he  ever  wrote.  He  reminded  the  angry 
Minister  that  there  was  a  precedent  in  the  annals  of  diplomacy 
for  the  treatment  of  which  he  complained ;  that  the  precedent 
was  of  recent  date  and  of  English  origin  ;  and  that  it  had  been 
established  by  Canning  when,  in  1808,  he  stopped  oral  com- 
munication with  Pinckney  after  the  second  interview.  He 
told  Jackson  that  an  explanation  of  the  reasons  for  disavowing 
Erskine  was  needed ;  that  those  made  to  Pinckney  were  by 
word  of  mouth,  and  were  in  no  wise  formal ;  that  Canning 
had  refused  to  reduce  them  to  writing  and  make  them  formal 
because  the  proper  place  for  such  explanation  was  Washington, 
and  the  proper  channel  Erskine's  successor.  This,  Madison 
thought,  was  sound  reasoning,  and  on  it  based  three  assertions 
— that  when  a  government  refused  to  make  good  a  pledge,  a 
frank  and  formal  disclosure  of  the  reasons  was  due ;  that  Jack- 
son, as  Erskine's  successor,  was  the  proper  person  to  make  the 
disclosure ;  that,  if  he  had  no  authority  to  make  it,  then  the 
President  was  ready  to  settle  the  matter  in  any  honorable  way. 
Jackson  must  understand,  however,  that  the  statement  that 
Erskine  had  but  one  set  of  instructions  was  news  to  Madison. 
Had  he  known  it,  no  such  arrangement  would  ever  have  been 
made.  Nothing  was  more  common  than  for  a  minister  to 
have,  if  not  two  sets  of  instructions,  at  least  two  grades  of  the 
same  instructions,  and  beginning  with  what  is  desirable,  to  end 
with  what  is  obtainable.  This  was  what  Mr.  Erskine  was 
thought  to  have  done,  and  what  he  believed  himself  empowered 


1809.  THE   QUARREL  WITH  JACKSON.  353 

to  do.  The  reply  of  Jackson  to  this  was  clothed  in  diplomatic^ 
language.  But  in  it  he  meant  to  say,  and  was  understood  to 
say,  that  the  Secretary  lied,  and  that  the  Government  well 
knew  Erskine  had  no  authority  to  make  the  agreement  he  did. 
After  waiting  a  week,  Madison  answered  that  "  such  insinua- 
tions are  inadmissible  in  the  intercourse  of  a  foreign  minister 
with  a 'government  that  understands  what  it  owes  to  itself." 
But  this  hint  was  not  taken.  Jackson  again  flung  back  the 
charge  of  falsehood,  and  was  told  in  reply  that  no  further  com- 
munications would  be  received  from  him,  and  that  the  neces- 
sity of  this  course  of  action  would  at  once  be  made  known  to 
his  King. 

The  moment  these  despatches  were  read  by  the  people 
they  became,  both  in  Congress  and  out  of  Congress,  the  subject 
of  violent  debate.  Everywhere  the  Federalists  defended  Jack- 
son. Everywhere  the  Republicans  supported  Smith.  It  is 
now  clear,  said  the  Federalists,  that  Erskine  was  tricked, 
duped,  ensnared.  By  one  means  and  another  he  was  persuaded 
to  enter  into  an  agreement  he  had  no  authority  to  make.  And 
now,  for  rejecting  this  unauthorized  agreement,  the  King  is 
abused  and  reviled  most  shamefully.  But  had  he  no  prece- 
dent ?  Had  the  mammoth  of  Democracy  done  nothing  of  the 
kind  ?  Had  not  he  rejected  a  treaty  made  and  approved  by 
no  less  a  Democrat  than  James  Monroe  ?  If  Thomas  Jefferson 
may  repudiate  a  treaty,  why  may  not  King  George  disavow 
an  agreement?  If  Jackson  is  to  be  sent  away  for  insisting 
that  Erskine  had  but  one  set  of  instructions,  ought  not  Smith 
to  be  sent  away  for  insisting  as  stoutly  that  Erskine  was  thought 
to  have  two  ? 

Erskine,  said  the  Republicans,  has  indeed  been  duped. 
But  he  has  been  duped  by  his  own  gracious  master.  It  is  im- 
possible to  read  his  instructions  and  not  see  that  he  kept  the 
spirit,  whatever  he  may  have  done  with  the  letter.  Had  the 
treacherous  King  who  sent  them  been  in  earnest,  the  conduct 
of  the  Minister  would  have  been  praised,  not  blamed.  But  he 
was  not  in  earnest.  American  food,  not  American  friendship, 
was  wanted,  and,  this  secured,  the  agreement  is  cast  aside  as 
no  longer  useful.  The  prompt  disavowal,  the  recall  of  the 
Minister  with  every  mark  of  anger,  the  genoroiis  leave  for 
TOL.  m. — 24 


354  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

American  ships  laden  to  the  water's  edge  with  produce  to 
enter  the  British  ports  where  that  produce  was  wof  ully  needed, 
is  all  for  show.  Consider  the  time  and  the  manner  of  issu- 
ing that  order.  The  agreement  was  closed  and  the  procla- 
mation published  at  Washington  on  the  nineteenth  of  April. 
On  May  twenty-second  the  agreement  was  disavowed,  and  on 
May  twenty-fourth  the  order  in  council  concerning  American 
ships  was  issued.  News  of  the  agreement  then  crossed  the  At- 
lantic in  thirty-three  days.  But  news  of  the  order  in  council 
did  not  reach  the  President  till  July  thirty-first,  just  sixty- 
eight  days  after  it  was  put  forth.  Was  this  accidental  ?  Was 
nothing  to  be  gained  by  this  delay  ?  Read  the  order  and  see. 
Read  especially  that  part  which  declares  that  ships  bound  from 
the  United  States  to  Holland  shall  not  be  exempt  from  capture 
unless  they  set  sail  before  the  twentieth  day  of  July,  five  days 
before  the  orders  reached  any  port  of  the  United  States  and 
eleven  days  before  they  were  known  in  Washington.  Every 
ship,  therefore,  which,  between  July  twentieth  and  August 
ninth,  left  an  American  port  for  Holland  is  at  this  moment 
subject  to  British  capture.  Does  the  order,  again,  exempt 
vessels  which  have  sailed  for  Dutch  ports  other  than  those  of 
Holland  ?  It  does  not ;  so  these  vessels  are  also  subject  to 
British  capture.  Does  the  order,  once  more,  exempt  ships 
coming  home  from  Dutch  ports  with  cargoes  ?  It  does  not ; 
so  these  ships  are  also  subject  to  British  capture.  Does  any- 
body, unless  he  is  a  Tory  and  a  member  of  the  Junto,  doubt 
that  they  will  be  captured  ?  Bad  feeling,  bad  faith,  insolence, 
and  rapacity  have  marked  the  conduct  of  England  and  her 
ministers  toward  the  United  States  ever  since  the  day  when, 
in  deep  humiliation,  she  laid  down  her  arms  at  Yorktown. 
This  is  why  she  chose  Mr.  Jackson  to  replace  Mr.  Erskine. 
The  war  in  Europe  had  thrown  thirty  gentlemen  of  her  diplo- 
matic corps  out  of  place.  Yet  from  among  these  thirty  she 
chose  the  one  man  whose  name  is  an  affront  forever  to  all 
neutral  nations — the  man  who,  at  Copenhagen,  did  the  foulest 
wrong  that  has  ever  yet  been  done  to  the  rights  of  a  neu- 
tral people.  All  this,  however,  our  long-suffering  rulers  over- 
looked. Mr.  Jackson  came.  Mr.  Smith  hurried  to  Wash- 
ington to  meet  him.  The  President,  with  a  haste  that  was 


1809.  THE  QUARREL  WITH  JACKSON.  355 

scarcely  seemly,  sped  from  his  home  in  Virginia  to  "Washing- 
ton and  formally  received  him.  To  tell  what  then  followed 
is  simply  to  tell  the  old  story  over  again.  Whoever  the  minis- 
ter in  England,  whoever  the  minister  in  the  United  States,  it 
is  all  one.  Be  it  Pitt  or  Grenville,  be  it  Jenkinson  or  Adding- 
ton,  be  it  Dundas  or  Canning,  insolence  and  outrage  are  heaped 
on  us  just  the  same.  Hammond  insolently  defending  the 
speech  of  Lord  Dorchester  to  the  Indians  in  1794: ;  Bond,  the 
British  charge  d'affaires,  declaring  that  if  the  House  of 
Representatives  did  not  vote  money  to  put  Jay's  treaty  into 
force,  the  frontier  posts  would  not  be  given  up ;  Liston  con- 
spiring with  Blount  and  Chisholm  to  destroy  the  neutral  posi- 
tion of  the  United  States  with  respect  to  France  and  Spain  ; 
Merry  impudently  attempting  to  enforce  monarchical  etiquette 
on  the  Executive  of  a  free  people  ;  Rose  seeking  to  bully  the 
Government  into  obedience  to  the  commands  of  the  King ; 
Erskine  planning  an  agreement  his  master  never  for  a  moment 
meant  to  keep ;  Copenhagen  Jackson  insulting  the  Secretary 
in  his  notes  and  the  whole  people  in  his  circular — such  has  been 
the  behavior  of  every  minister  Great  Britain  has  yet  sent  to 
the  United  States.  Shall  this  new  affront  be  borne  with  the 
same  meekness  as  were  the  old  ?  This  is  the  question  for 
Congress  to  settle,  and  in  settling  it  let  us  hope  that  Congress 
will  exhibit  the  spirit  and  the  firmness  of  Secretary  Smith. 

Congress,  indeed,  was  prompt  to  act.  In  the  Senate  so 
much  of  the  message  as  related  to  the  trouble  with  Jackson 
was  sent  to  a  select  committee,  and  from  the  committee  in  a 
few  days  came  a  set  of  resolutions  and  a  bill.  The  resolutions 
set  forth  that  the  intimation  of  Jackson  that  the  United  States 
had  entered  into  the  agreement  with  Erskine  knowing  that  he 
had  no  powers  to  make  it  was  "  highly  indecorous  and  inso- 
lent " ;  that  the  repetition  of  the  same  intimation  a  few  days 
later  was  "  still  more  insolent  and  affronting  "  ;  that  the  Secre- 
tary had  done  wrell  in  refusing  to  treat  with  him  further ;  that 
the  circular  addressed  to  the  consuls  was  a  still  "  more  direct 
and  aggravated  insult  and  affront  to  the  American  people  and 
their  government "  ;  and  that  Congress  was  ready,  if  necessary, 
to  call  out  the  whole  force  of  the  nation  to  repel  such  insults, 
and  to  maintain  the  rights,  the  honor,  and  the  interests  of  the 


356  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

United  States.  The  bill  gave  the  President  power  to  send 
offending  ministers  out  of  the  country. 

In  the  House  the  temper  displayed  was  angry  and  excited. 
There,  too,  so  much  of  the  message  as  related  to  foreign  affairs 
was  sent  to  a  select  committee.  But  long  ere  the  committee 
was  heard  from,  a  dozen  resolutions  were  on  the  clerk's  table. 
One  proposed  that  commanders  of  American  armed  ships  be 
ordered  to  stop  and  bring  in  every  English  ship  bound  to  a 
port  not  within  the  dominions  or  colonies  of  England,  and 
every  French  ship  bound  to  a  port  not  within  the  dominions 
or  colonies  of  France.  Another  proposed  that  English  ships 
thus  brought  in  should  be  held  till  a  duty  had  been  paid  on  the 
goods  and  a  license  to  trade  taken  out  by  the  ship.  A  third 
proposed  that  French  vessels  thus  stopped  should  be  held  till 
Congress  decided  what  to  do  with  them.  A  fourth,  that  an 
ad  valorem  duty  be  laid  on  goods,  wares,  and  merchandise  the 
growth  or  product  of  Great  Britain.  A  fifth,  that  citizens  of 
the  United  States  be  forbidden  to  trade  under  the  license  of 
any  foreign  prince  or  state  to  any  port  not  under  the  rule  of 
that  prince  or  state.  There  were  resolutions  calling  on  the 
Committee  on  Commerce  and  Manufactures  to  consider  the 
fitness  of  limiting  the  carriage  of  American  goods  and  produce 
to  American-owned  ships ;  to  consider  the  fitness  of  forbid- 
ding American  vessels  taking  anything  out  of  the  ports  of  the 
United  States  which  was  not  grown,  produced,  or  made  in  the 
United  States ;  and  to  consider  the  fitness  of  forbidding  Ameri- 
can ships  to  carry  foreign  goods  from  one  foreign  port  to  an- 
other ;  there  were  resolutions  to  lay  yet  greater  discriminating 
duties  in  favor  of  ships  owned  and  wholly  manned  by  citizens 
of  the  United  States ;  to  stop  foreign  vessels  bringing  foreign 
goods  to  the  United  States  unless  the  product  of  the  country 
to  which  the  ships  belonged ;  and  to  add  to  the  duty  on  dis- 
tilled spirits  coming  in  foreign  vessels  from  ports  with  which 
citizens  of  the  United  States  could  not  trade. 

The  movers  defended  their  resolutions  as  retaliatory.  They 
were  propositions  to  do  to  England  just  what  England  had  so 
long  been  doing  to  us.  Is  not  this,  they  asked,  both  wise  and 
just  ?  Are  we  not  as  much  a  nation  as  Great  Britain  ?  Are 
we  not  as  independent  as  Great  Britain  ?  Has  she  any  rights 


1809.  MACON'S  BILL  NO.  1.  357 

that  we  have  not  ?  If  she  can  stop  and  seize  and  confiscate 
our  ships  because  they  carry  on  a  trade  she  sees  fit  to  forbid, 
may  not  we  seize  her  ships  for  carrying  on  a  trade  we  see  fit 
to  forbid  ?  If  she  may  turn  our  vessels  into  her  ports  to  pay 
a  duty  and  take  out  a  license  before  they  may  go  to  Holland, 
may  not  we  do  the  same  to  her  vessels  on  their  way  to  Brazil 
and  the  Spanish  Main?  Undoubtedly  we  may;  for  to  say 
that  we  have  no  right  to  do  to  England  what  England  does  to 
us  is  to  say  that  she  may  demand  without  limitation  and  that 
we  must  submit  without  complaint. 

While  the  House  was  considering  some  of  these  resolutions 
and  laying  others  on  the  table,  that  approving  the  conduct  of 
the  President  in  the  Jackson  affair  came  down  from  the  Sen- 
ate, and  brought  on  a  warm  debate  on  the  behavior  of  the 
English  Minister.  The  debate  began  on  the  nineteenth  of 
December,  and,  save  for  a  few  days'  recess  at  Christmas, 
went  on  continuously  till  the  fourth  of  January.  So  bitter 
did  it  become  that  on  the  last  day  the  Speaker  was  nineteen 
consecutive  hours  in  the  chair.  Then,  in  the  early  gray  of 
morning,  but  while  the  lamps  were  still  burning,  the  clerk 
was  bidden  to  call  the  roll.  As  he  did  so,  seventy-two  mem- 
bers said  Yea,  forty-one  said  Nay,  and  the  resolution  was  car- 
ried. The  vote  was  strictly  partisan.  Every  Federalist  an- 
swered Kay ;  every  Republican  answered  Yea.  Of  the  forty- 
one  nays,  four  came  from  North  Carolina  and  four  from 
Virginia.  The  rest  were  from  men  sent  by  the  people  of 
New  England  and  New  York. 

Having  thus  pledged  itself  to  vigorous  measures,  the 
House  went  on  to  take  into  consideration  a  long  bill.  This 
bill  was  the  work  of  Gallatin,  but  was  reported  by  the  se- 
lect committee  on  so  much  of  the  President's  message  as 
related  to  foreign  affairs,  and  was  known  sometimes  as  "  The 
American  Navigation  Act "  and  sometimes  as  "  Macon's  Bill 
No.  1."  Of  the  provisions,  some  were  to  take  effect  at  once 
and  some  on  April  fifteenth,  1810.  All  were  to  expire  with 
the  next  session  of  Congress.  Those  to  take  effect  at  once  pro- 
vided that  no  ship,  public  or  private,  flying  the  flag  of  France 
or  England  should  be  suffered  to  enter  any  port  of  the  United 
States ;  and  that  no  merchandise  should  come,  directly  or  indi- 


358  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  OHAP.  xx. 

rectly,  from  any  of  the  ports  or  colonies  of  France  or  England 
unless  they  came  in  ships  owned  by  citizens  of  the  United 
States.  Those  to  go  into  force  on  April  fifteenth  provided 
that  after  that  day  all  trade  with  France  and  Great  Britain  must 
be  direct ;  that  if  either  belligerent  recalled  or  so  changed  her 
decrees  that  she  no  longer  violated  the  neutral  trade  of  the 
United  States,  the  President  should  declare  this  by  proclama- 
tion; and  that,  the  proclamation  having  been  issued,  trade 
should  at  once  be  renewed  with  the  power  that  had  modified 
her  decrees. 

Concerning  the  first  section,  which  shut  out  the  armed  ships 
of  France  and  Great  Britain,  and  the  eleventh  section,  which 
repealed  the  Non-intercourse  Act  of  1809,  the  House  was  of 
one  mind ;  indeed,  not  a  member  who  spoke  had  a  word  to 
say  against  either.  The  section  which  parted  the  House, 
which  produced  a  long  and  tiresome  debate,  which  gave  the 
bill  the  character  of  a  navigation  act  and  was  finally  carried 
by  an  almost  strictly  party  vote,  was  the  fifth.  By  this  all 
trade  with  France  and  Great  Britain  was,  after  April  fifteenth, 
to  be  carried  on  in  ships  built  and  owned  in  the  United  States. 

We  object  to  this  bill,  said  the  Federalists,  who  opposed  it 
to  a  man,  because  no  good  can  come  of  it ;  because  it  is  a  shame- 
ful submission  to  the  decrees  of  Great  Britain  and  France  ;  be- 
cause it  is  a  continuation  of  the  old  restrictive  system ;  because 
Great  Britain  will  retaliate ;  and  because  it  can  not  possibly  be 
carried  into  effect.  The  bill,  indeed,  is  nothing  but  an  old 
remedy  in  a  new  form.  Four  years  ago  we  tried  it  in  the 
shape  of  non-importation.  Two  years  ago,  in  the  form  of  an 
embargo.  Last  year  it  was  a  non-intercourse  act  that  was 
going  to  do  wonders,  and  now  it  is  again  before  us  as  an 
American  navigation  act  that  cannot  fail  to  be  a  panacea. 
But  it  will  not  be  a  panacea,  for  it  is,  if  possible,  more  detesta- 
ble than  any  other  one  of  the  shameful  series  to  which  it  be- 
longs. In  the  Embargo  Act  we  said  to  Great  Britain :  "We  can- 
not fight  you ;  your  navy  is  too  great ;  but  we  will  not  submit. 
We  will  shut  our  ports,  we  will  destroy  our  commerce,  we  will 
not  leave  one  ship  on  the  ocean  to  gratify  your  insatiable  love 
of  plunder ;  but  obey  your  orders  we  will  not.  This  was  the 
language  of  freemen.  To  talk,  however,  is  one  thing ;  to  act 


1809.  MACON'S  BILL  DEBATED.  359 

is  quite  another.  The  law  could  not  be  enforced.  Evasion 
followed  evasion,  and  supplementary  act  followed  supplement- 
ary act,  till  the  series  ended  with  the  Force  Bill  and  the  people 
rose  in  righteous  anger  and  wiped  it  from  the  statute-book. 
Then  came  non-intercourse.  In  that  we  said  to  France  and 
Great  Britain :  We  will  renew  trade  with  all  the  world  save 
you  and  your  dependencies.  With  you  we  will  have  nothing 
to  do.  You  shall  not  come  to  our  ports.  We  will  not  go  to 
yours,  for  you  are  lost  to  every  sense  of  justice  and  of  honor. 
Yet  even  this  law  cannot  be  carried  out.  The  people  are  de- 
termined to  trade  where  they  will ;  and  the  name  of  Amelia 
Island,  which  one  year  ago  was  unknown  to  half  the  members 
of  this  House,  is  now  as  well  known  as  the  names  of  the  days 
of  the  week.  Disobeyed  at  home,  powerless  to  effect  any 
concession  abroad,  non-intercourse  is  in  turn  condemned,  and 
we  are  again  asked  to  pass  an  American  navigation  act — an- 
other name  for  submission.  Trade  is  now  to  be  renewed  even 
with  England  and  France,  provided  it  be  direct  and  carried  on 
in  American  ships.  What  is  this  but  saying,  We  submit ;  we 
have  been  wrong ;  we  accept  the  conditions  you  are  pleased  to 
lay  down ;  we  will  forget  the  insults,  the  injuries,  the  black 
treachery  of  the  past ;  we  will  take  your  hand,  red  with  the 
blood  of  Pierce  and  the  slaughtered  seamen,  open  our  ports 
to  your  goods,  go  to  such  markets  as  you  allow,  and  furnish 
you  with  all  the  means  necessary  to  keep  on  oppressing  us  ? 
And  will  she  not  keep  on  oppressing  us  ?  Does  any  one  doubt 
for  a  moment  that  she  will  retaliate  ? 

We  deny,  said  the  Republicans,  that  England  will  retali- 
ate; we  deny  that  a  navigation  act  cannot  be  carried  into 
effect,  and  we  deny  that  it  bears  any  resemblance  to  the  em- 
bargo or  the  Non-intercourse  Act  now  in  force.  The  embargo 
was  a  restriction  on  our  own  citizens ;  the  Navigation  Act  is 
to  be  a  restriction  on  foreigners.  The  embargo  would  not 
suffer  an  American  citizen  to  send  his  cotton,  his  flaxseed,  his 
rice,  his  flour,  his  salted  fish,  to  any  foreign  port  whatever. 
The  Navigation  Act  leaves  him  free  to  send  his  goods  to  any 
port  he  pleases,  and  gives  to  the  American  ship-owners  all  the 
carrying  trade  between  the  United  States,  Great  Britain,  and 
France.  We  favor  the  bill  because  it  will  break  rap  the  law- 


360  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

less  trade  with  Amelia  Island ;  because  it  will  confine  the 
carrying-trade  of  the  United  States  to  American  ships;  be- 
cause it  will  restore  our  commerce ;  and  because  we  firmly 
believe  that  it  will  in  the  end  bring  not  one  but  both  of  the 
belligerents  to  terms.  Toward  sundown,  on  the  twenty-ninth 
of  January,  the  question  on  the  passage  of  the  bill  was  put 
and  carried.  Seventy-three  members  answered  Yea  and  fifty- 
two  Nay. 

From  the  House  the  bill  passed  to  the  Senate,  and  by  the 
Senate  it  was  quickly  killed.  Every  section  save  the  first, 
which  shut  out  the  armed  ships  of  France  and  England,  the 
second,  which  laid  down  the  penalties  for  refusing  to  obey,  and 
the  twelfth,  which  limited  the  act  to  the  end  of  the  next  ses- 
sion of  Congress,  was  stricken  out,  and,  thus  mutilated,  the 
bill  went  back  to  the  House.  The  House  in  a  rage  restored 
the  sections  and  again  sent  it  to  the  Senate.  The  Senate 
thereupon  refused  to  concur  and  demanded  a  conference.  The 
House  voted  to  insist  on  their  bill  and  granted  the  conference. 
But  it  might  as  well  have  never  been  held,  for  the  Senate 
conferrees  having  made  a  proposition  which  the  House  confer- 
rees  would  not  accept,  and  the  House  conferrees  having  made 
a  proposition  which  the  Senate  conferrees  would  not  accept, 
they  parted,  and  Macon's  Bill  No.  1  was  lost. 

The  quarrel  which  thus  sprang  up  between  the  two  branches 
of  Congress  by  no  means  disposed  of  the  question  in  dispute. 
Indeed,  a  week  after  the  Representatives  had  voted  not  to 
yield  to  the  wishes  of  the  Senators  a  new  bill  from  the  select 
committee  on  so  much  of  the  message  of  the  President  as 
related  to  foreign  affairs  was  being  hurried  on  to  a  second 
reading.  This  became  known  as  "  Macon's  Bill  No.  2." 

As  it  came  from  the  committee,  the  new  bill  contained 
three  sections.  One  repealed  the  third  section  of  the  amended 
Non-intercourse  Act  of  June  twenty-eighth,  which  forbade 
American  merchant-ships  going  to  England  or  France.  An- 
other declared  that  all  penalties  incurred  under  the  Embargo 
and  Non-intercourse  Acts  should  be  collected.  The  third  pro- 
vided that  if,  before  March  third,  1811,  either  France  or  Eng- 
land should  repeal  her  decrees  and  cease  to  violate  the  neutral 
commerce  of  the  United  States,  the  President  should  proclaim 


1810.  MACON'S  BILL  NO.  2.  361 

the  fact,  and  that  if,  within  three  months  after  the  issue  of  the 
proclamation,  the  other  power  did  not  likewise  repeal  her  de- 
crees the  old  Non-intercourse  Act  should  be  enforced  against 
that  power.  But  the  bill  had  not  left  the  House  when  a  fourth 
and  a  fifth  section  were  added.  The  fourth  closed  the  ports 
of  the  United  States  to  the  armed  ships  of  France  and  Eng- 
land. The  fifth  laid  a  duty  of  fifty  per  cent,  ad  valorem  on 
goods,  wares,  and  merchandise  of  foreign  growth  or  make. 

The  measure  at  best  was  weak  and  spiritless;  but,  weak 
as  it  was,  the  enemies  of  Gallatiu  in  the  Senate  would  not 
approve  it,  and  sent  it  back  to  the  House  greatly  altered.  The 
provision  for  a  duty  of  fifty  per  cent,  was  stricken  out.  Every 
other  section  was  in  some  way  amended,  and  a  new  one,  giving 
the  President  power  to  use  the  war-ships  as  convoys,  was  added. 
Most  of  the  changes  were  merely  verbal  and  were  accepted 
without  a  murmur ;  but  to  drop  the  duty  and  keep  the  con- 
voy provision  was  something  the  House  stoutly  refused  to 
do.  To  restore  the  duty  was  something  the  Senate  in  turn 
refused  to  do.  After  a  conference  each  yielded,  and,  during 
the  last  hours  of  the  last  day  of  the  session,  the  House  passed 
the  bill  without  the  provision  for  convoy  and  without  the  ex- 
tra duty  and  sent  it  to  the  President.  Madison,  who,  as  was 
his  custom  at  such  times,  was  waiting  in  a  committee  room 
hard  by,  signed  the  bill  at  once.  Not  many  minutes  later  Con-_ 
gress  adjourned ;  the  total  Non-intercourse  Act  of  March,  1809, 
expired  by  limitation,  and  Macon's  law  took  its  place  and  closed 
the  series  of  commercial  restrictions  by  which  Congress  sought 
to  break  down  the  encroachments  of  England  and  of  France. 
First  in  that  series  was  the  partial  Non-intercourse  Act  of 
1806.  Next  was  the  embargo  of  1807,  its  supplementary  acts, 
and  the  Force  Act  of  1809.  Then  came  the  total  Non-inter- 
course Act  of  March  first,  1809,  and,  last  of  all,  Macon's  Bill 
No.  2.  With  it  the  long  struggle  for  free  trade  and  sailors' 
rights  ended  and  the  country  drifted  slowly  but  surely  into 
war. 

— 

The  effect  of  the  new  law  was  to  renew  free  trade  with 
England  and  with  France  till  March  third,  1811.  If  before 
that  day  either  belligerent  revoked  or  so  changed  her  edicts 
that  they  ceased  to  hinder  the  commerce  of  the  United  States, 


362  DEIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

the  President  was  to  make  known  the  same  by  proclamation. 
This  done,  he  was  to  wait  three  months.  If  at  the  end  of 
three  months  the  other  belligerent  had  not  in  like  manner 
revoked  her  decrees,  nine  sections  of  the  Non-intercourse  Act 
instantly  revived  and  went  into  force  against  hej.  It  might, 
indeed,  happen  that  neither  power  would  revoke  her  decrees ; 
but  for  this  the  law  made  no  provision.  Such  an  event,  it 
was  well  known,  could  have  but  one  result,  and  that  result 
_would  be  war.  It  may  readily  be  believed,  therefore,  that  our 
ancestors  waited  with  no  common  anxiety  for  news  of  the  re- 
ception accorded  the  law  by  France  and  England. 

Armstrong,  on  the  twenty-ninth  of  April,  1809,  had  trans- 
mitted the  total  Non-intercourse  Act  to  Count  Champagny, 
with  a  long  letter  of  explanation.  The  Count  was  assured 
that  the  law  had  been  forced  on  the  United  States  by  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  time  ;  that  it  was  merely  a  precautionary 
measure ;  that  it  had  been  reluctantly  adopted ;  and  that  the 
moment  the  decrees  of  Berlin  and  Milan  were  revoked,  it 
was  to  be  suspended.  Napoleon  was  at  that  moment  deeply 
engaged  in  his  fourth  war  with  Austria,  and,  before  the  letter 
could  reach  him,  had  entered  Vienna  and  taken  up  his  abode 
in  the  palace  at  Schonbrunn.  There,  on  the  eighteenth  of 
May,  he  received  by  the  same  courier  news  of  the  repeal  of 
the  embargo,  of  the  establishment  of  non-intercourse,  and  of 
the  British  orders  in  council  revoking  the  orders  of  Novem- 
ber, 1807,  and  blockading  the  coasts  of  Holland,  France,  and 
Italy.  For  the  moment  he  determined  to  make  no  concessions, 
and  sent  off  a  long  letter  to  Champagny  expressing  his  views. 
But  the  following  week  he  received  from  his  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs  a  report  on  the  troubles  with  America,  and 
completely  changed  his  mind.  The  stoppage  of  neutral  com- 
merce, Champagny  told  him,  had  destroyed  the  demand  for 
staple  products,  had  ruined  the  farmers  who  raised  and  the 
middle-men  who  marketed  them,  had  dried  up  a  fruitful  source 
of  revenue,  and  brought  much  misery  on  France.  In  the  face 
of  these  facts,  to  persist  in  punishing  America  was  most  un- 
wise. For  by  the  aid  of  American  ships  the  overflowing  ware- 
houses of  France  could  soon  be  emptied,  and  the  raw  material, 
so  necessary  for  the  continuance  of  French  manufactures,  and 


1809.  FEENCH  DECREES  NOT  REVOKED.  363 

/ 
the  produce  so  necessary  for  the  life  of  the  French  people, 

could  be  obtained  in  plenty. 

The  arguments  of  Champagny  undoubtedly  weighed  much 
with  Napoleon.  But  the  news  of  Erskine's  agreement  and  the 
proclamation  of  Madison  weighed  more,  and,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  both,  he  gave  way  and  framed  a  new  decree,  revoking 
that  of  Milan,  and  leaving  neutral  commerce  to  be  regulated 
by  that  of  Berlin.  It  would  have  been  fortunate  had  he  held 
to  his  purpose.  But,  while  he  waited  to  hear  from  the  officers 
of  the  customs  just  what  the  effects  of  such  a  regulation  would 
be,  he  learned  that  England  had  disavowed  the  agreement. 
All  thought  of  concession  was  instantly  abandoned.  The  order 
to  begin  negotiations  with  Armstrong  was  countermanded, 
and  the  American  Minister  informed  that  the  Emperor  had 
changed  his  mind,  and  had  changed  it  so  completely  that  a 
decree,  made  ready  by  his  command  as  a  substitute  for  those 
of  Berlin  and  Milan,  had  been  laid  aside  indefinitely.*  No 
surprise  was  felt  by  Armstrong,  therefore,  when,  a  month  later, 
Champagny  answered  the  note  of  April  twenty-ninth  with  a 
flat  refusal  to  revoke  the  decrees. 

The  principles  of  the  Emperor,  he  stated,  had  not  changed. 
Napoleon  still  believed  that  a  neutral  flag  made  neutral 
goods ;  still  believed  that  to  blockade  by  proclamation  was  a 
pretension  as  monstrous  as  absurd ;  still  believed  that  a  mer- 
chant ship  was  a  floating  colony ;  that  to  visit  such  a  ship, 
search  such  a  ship,  impress  a  sailor  from  the  deck  of  such  a 
ship,  was  to  violate  the  sovereignty  of  the  country  whose 
floating  colony  she  was.  That  he  did  not  respect  these  prin- 
ciples was  true.  He  had  been  driven  from  them  by  the 
maritime  tyranny  of  England.  England  had  placed  France 
in  a  state  of  blockade.  The  Emperor,  by  the  decree  of  Ber- 
lin, had  placed  the  British  Islands  in  a  state  of  blockade. 
England,  by  her  orders  in  council  of  November,  1807,  had 
laid  a  toll  on  neutral  vessels,  and  had  forced  them  to  pass 
through  her  ports  before  they  entered  any  port  of  France. 
The  Emperor,  by  the  decree  of  December,  1807,  had  de- 
clared that  all  ships  paying  this  tribute  were,  by  that  very 

*  Armstrong  to  Secretary  Smith,  July  22,  1809.     State  Department  Archives. 


364  DKIFTING  INTO  WAE.  CHAP.  xx. 

act,  denationalized.  These  were  measures  of  retaliation,  and 
nothing  more.  When  England  revoked  her  blockade  of 
France,  France  would  revoke  her  blockade  of  England.  When 
England  recalled  her  orders  in  council  of  November,  the  Milan 
decree  would  fall  of  itself.* 

To  Secretary  Smith  the  letter  of  Champagny  seemed  to 
contain  a  diplomatic  hint.  That  France  should  ask  England  to 
recall  her  order  was  impossible.  But  might  not  he  do  so  in  the 
name  of  the  United  States  ?  The  Secretary  thought  he  could, 
and  at  once  instructed  Armstrong  to  ask  Champagny  on  just 
what  conditions  the  Emperor  would  consent  to  revoke  the  de- 
crees of  Berlin  and  Milan.f  If  the  conditions  were  reasonable, 
the  answer  was  to  be  sent  with  the  utmost  speed  to  Pinkney. 
The  conditions  named  were  both  reasonable  and  explicit,  and 
were  accordingly  sent  to  London.  The  time  for  such  a  request 
as  Pinkney  had  now  to  make  was  most  unfortunate.  News  of 
the  suspension  of  intercourse  with  Jackson  had  reached  Eng- 
land. The  demand  for  his  recall  had  been  made  formally,  and 
the  King,  greatly  offended  at  the  course  taken  by  Secretary 
Smith,  was  not  disposed  to  revoke  orders  offensive  to  America. 
Such  being  the  state  of  affairs,  it  seemed  best  to  Pinkney  to 
act  with  great  caution.  He  did  not,  therefore,  ask  for  the  re- 
peal of  any  of  the  orders  in  council,  but  asked  if  any  blockade 
laid  on  the  coast  of  France  before  the  first  day  of  January, 
1807,  was  still  enforced  by  Great  Britain.  During  two  weeks 
no  reply  came.  He  was  then  informed  that  the  order  of  May, 

1806,  had  been  "comprehended"  in  the  order  of  January, 

1807,  which  was  still  in  force.    The  purpose  of  Pinkney  was  to 
obtain  a  distinct  statement  that  the  order  of  1806  was  not  in 
force.     To  be  told  that  it  had  been  "  comprehended  "  in  an- 
other did  not,  therefore,  content  him,  and  he  again  sought  for 
definite  information.     He  inferred,  he  said,  that  the  order  of 
May,  1806,  was  not  itself  in  force ;  that  the  blockade  then 
laid  existed,  if  it  existed  at  all,  by  virtue  of  an  order  issued 
since  the  first  day  of  January,  1807 ;  and  that  he  would  be 

*  Champagny  to  Armstrong,  August  22,  1809.  American  State  Papers,  For- 
eign Affairs,  vol.  iii,  p.  325. 

f  Smith  to  Armstrong,  December  1,  1809.     Ibid,  vol.  iii,  p.  826. 


1810.  ORDERS  IN  COUNCIL  NOT  REVOKED.  365 

glad  to  know  if  his  inferences  were  just.  The  second  answer 
was  as  evasive  as  the  first.  The  order  of  May,  1806,  had  never 
been  recalled.  The  blockade  which  it  established  could  not 
truthfully  be  said  to  rest  wholly  on  the  order  of  January 
seventh,  1807.  It  was  comprehended  in  the  latter.  Such  as 
the  answer  was,  Pinkney  received  it  thankfully ;  tried  hard  to 
believe  that  it  meant  the  order  was  really  revoked ;  sent  a  copy 
to  Armstrong,  and  promised  to  seek  once  more  for  a  formal 
revocation.  This  time  he  announced  to  Lord  "Wellesley  the 
condition  named  by  Champagny,  or,  as  he  is  henceforth  to  be 
called,  the  Due  de  Cadore,  and  asked  for  the  recall  of  the 
order,  or,  at  least,  a  declaration  that  it  was  no  longer  in  force. 

It  was  now  the  first  of  May,  1810.  But  May  passed,  as  did 
June  and  July  and  half  of  August,  without  a  word  in  reply. 
Indeed,  none  ever  came,  and,  while  he  waited,  Pinkney  read 
in  the  London  Times  that  Napoleon  had  recalled  the  decrees  of 
Berlin  and  Milan,  and  that  on  the  first  of  November  they 
would  cease  to  be  law. 

Scarcely  had  Champagny  informed  Armstrong  of  the  con- 
dition on  which  these  decrees  would  be  annulled,  and  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  Emperor  would  like  to  treat  neutrals, 
when  Napoleon  gave  a  fine  illustration  of  the  manner  in  which 
he  actually  did  treat  them.  The  lifting  of  the  embargo  had 
been  followed  by  the  results  the  Republicans  had  predicted.  A 
splendid  navy  of  merchant  ships,  laden  to  the  water's  edge 
with  the  produce  of  our  country,  had  gone  oif  to  Europe, 
never  to  return.  Some  set  sail  for  the  Baltic  Sea.  Some  made 
straight  for  the  ports  of  Holland.  Some  cleared  out  for  the 
ports  of  Spain.  Such  as  sailed  for  the  Baltic  fell  in  with  the 
privateers  of  Norway,  and  twenty-six  were  soon  in  Christian- 
sand  for  judgment.  There  such  as  had  sea  letters  with  dates 
altered  or  erased,  or  sea  letters  not  signed  by  the  Secretary  of 
State,  or  could  not  show  a  charter  party,  were  promptly  con- 
demned. But  a  fate  far  worse  awaited  such  as  reached  the 
ports  of  Spain. 

On  the  twentieth  of  May,  1809,  a  schooner  flying  the 
American  flag  and  bearing  a  cargo  of  colonial  produce  entered 
the  port  of  San  Sebastian.  Her  case  was  a  peculiar  one. 
She  had  violated  no  law  of  the  United  States,  for  the  embargo 


366  DRIFTING  INTO  WAK.  CHAP.  xx. 

had  long  been  repealed,  and  trade  with  Spain  permitted.  She 
had  not  entered  a  port  of  England,  had  not  paid  a  penny  of 
tribute,  had  not  on  her  voyage  been  visited  by  an  English 
cruiser,  had  not  done  anything  for  which,  under  the  decrees  of 
Berlin  or  Milan,  she  could  legally  be  condemned.  As  Spanish 
ports  would,  it  was  believed,  soon  be  crowded  with  just  such 
vessels,  the  question  what  shall  be  done  with  her  was  serious 
indeed.  Unable  to  decide  it,  Decres,  the  French  Minister  of 
Marine,  referred  the  whole  matter  to  Napoleon.*  During  two 
months  the  Emperor  was  too  busy  to  give  the  question  atten- 
tion. But  early  in  August  he  sent  off  to  Champagny  the  draft 
of  a  new  decree,  which  answered  Decres  completely.  The 
schooner  at  San  Sebastian  was  to  be  seized  and  confiscated ;  the 
cargo  was  to  be  taken  to  Bayonne  and  sold ;  the  money  was 
to  be  paid  into  the  "  caisse  de  1'amortissement " ;  and  thence- 
forth every  American  ship  which  came  to  any  port  of  France, 
of  Italy,  or  of  Spain  was  to  share  the  same  fate ;  for  the  United 
Stages  had,  by  the  act  of  March,  1809,  ordered  the  confiscation 
of  any  ship  and  cargo  that  came  to  her  ports  from  France. 

The  decree  was  never  published,  and  never  became  a  law. 
But,  from  the  hour  it  was  written,  the  doctrine  it  asserted  was 
a  rule  of  action  with  Napoleon,  and  in  a  few  months'  time 
Berthier  was  seizing  ships  in  Spain,  and  Joachim  Murat  in  the 
port  of  Naples.  Armstrong  remonstrated,  and  was  insolently 
lectured  by  Champagny  on  the  fickleness  of  America,  on  her 
lack  of  energy,  on  the  base  submission  she  had  made  to  Eng- 
land. He  was  told  that  the  Emperor  could  place  no  reliance 
on  the  United  States.  The  true  course  for  America  to  take 
was  clear.  Let  her  tear  in  pieces  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence and  become  again  a  part  of  England,  or  manfully  up- 
hold her  rights  on  the  sea.  But  she  had  chosen  a  different 
course.  She  submitted  to  England  and  attacked  France.  With- 
out the  smallest  ground  of  complaint  she  had  shut  her  ports  to 
French  vessels,  and  denounced  confiscation  against  any  that 
might  come  in.  This  compelled  his  Majesty  to  retaliate,  and 
he  had  seized  the  shipping  in  the  ports  of  Naples,  of  Italy, 

*  Report  of  the  Minister  of  Marine  to  the  Emperor,  June  7,  1809.     French 
Archives,  Foreign  Affairs . 


1810.  THE  RAMBOUILLET  DECEEE.  367 

of  Holland,  and  of  Spain,  because  (and  the  reason  was  not 
founded  on  fact)  French  ships  had  been  confiscated  in  America. 
"What  Napoleon  would  do  with  the  ships  he  held  Cadore  did 
not  attempt  to  say.  But  Armstrong  was  not  left  long  in 
doubt.  In  March  he  was  informed  that  the  Emperor  had 
ordered  those  in  Spain  to  be  sold.  In  May  he  received  a  copy 
of  the  Rambouillet  decree.  The  cause  of  the  decree  was  dis- 
tinctly declared  to  be  the  Non-intercourse  Act  of  1809 ;  and 
after  the  provisions  of  that  act  the  provisions  of  the  decree 
were  modelled.  The  act  prescribed  that  after  May  twentieth, 
1809,  no  ship  of  France  should  enter  any  port  of  the  United 
States.  The  decree  prescribed  that  the  ports  of  France  and  of 
countries  subject  to  France  should  be  considered  as  having 
been  closed  to  the  ships  of  the  United  States  on  May  twentieth, 
1809.  The  act  prescribed  that  if  any  French  ship  did  enter  a 
port  of  the  United  States  after  May  twentieth,  it  should  be 
seized  and  confiscated.  The  decree  prescribed  that  every  vessel 
bearing  the  American  flag  which  had,  since  May  twentieth, 
1809,  entered  a  port  of  France,  or  of  any  colony  of  France,  or 
of  any  country  occupied  by  the  army  of  France,  or  might  enter 
there  hereafter,  was  to  be  sold  and  the  money  placed  in  the 
"  caisse  de  1'amortissement." 

Though  signed  in  March,*  the  public  knew  nothing  of  it 
till  May.f  By  that  time  ships  and  cargoes  to  the  value  of  ten 
millions  of  dollars  had  been  seized  in  France,  Spain,  Holland, 
and  Naples,  and  under  it  were  soon  condemned  and  sold.:}: 
This  high-handed  robbery  was  at  its  height  when,  toward  the 
end  of  June  copies  of  the  Gazette  of  the  United  States  con- 
taining the  Macon  act  of  May  first,  1810,  reached  Paris.  No 
communication  on  the  subject  had  then  come  from  the  State 
Department  to  Armstrong.  He  took  a  Gazette,  however,  and 
sent  it  to  Cadore,  with  the  assurance  that  the  text  of  the 
Macon  act  as  therein  printed  might  be  considered  as  official. 

*  March  23,  1810.     American  State  Papers,  Foreign  Affairs,  vol.  iii,  p.  384. 

f  May  14,  1810. 

$  In  France,  fifty-one  ships ;  in  Spain,  forty-four  ships ;  in  Naples,  twenty- 
eight  ships ;  in  Holland,  eleven.  The  value  of  the  one  hundred  and  thirty-four 
exceeded  four  million  dollars.  The  previous  seizures  at  Antwerp  and  in  Spain 
were  valued  at  six  millions. 


388  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

-*••—— 
Napoleon  could  hardly  have  finished  reading  the  act  before 

his  decision  was  made.  He-  would  accept  the  offer  of  the 
United  States.  He  would  projmise  to  revoke  his  decrees  with- 
out ever  intending  to  do  so,  and  he  would,  meanwhile,  admit 
just  enough  American  goods  to  relieve  that  distress  of  the 
manufacturers  of  which  Cadore  had  complained.  He  could 
"not  have  supposed  that  such  conduct  would  influence  Great 
Britain  in  the  slightest.  Indeed,  it  was  not  intended  to.  His 
purpose  was  to  regain  that  control  of  our  commercial  affairs 
which  he  had  lost  by  the  decrees  of  Berlin  and  Milan,  and  to 
embroil  us  still  further  in  our  dispute  with  Great  Britain. 

Within  a  week  from  the  time  Cadore  received  the  Gazette 
a  new  decree  issued  restoring  trade  in  a  limited  degree  with 
France.*  Under  certain  restrictions  thirty  American  vessels 
were  to  be  suffered  to  bring  cotton,  oil,  dye-wood,  salt  fish, 
codfish,  and  peltry  from  the  United  States  to  France.  But 
they  must  bring  these  goods  and  no  others ;  they  must  come 
from  the  ports  of  Charleston  or  New  York,  and  no  others ; 
they  must  take  in  exchange  for  their  cargo  French  wines, 
French  brandy,  silks  and  linen  cloths  made  in  French  looms, 
and  jewelry  and  household  furniture  made  in  French  factories ; 
and  each  captain,  to  prove  that  he  came  from  Charleston  or 
New  York,  must  bring  a  newspaper  published  in  the  city  from 
which  he  sailed  on  the  day  he  sailed ;  and  a  certificate  from 
_the_French  Consul  with  a  sentence  written  in  cipher. 

Cadore  next  addressed  to  Armstrong  a  letter  f  with  the 
comfortable  assurance  that  on  the  first, day  of  November  the 
decrees  of  Berlin  and  Milan  would  cease  to  be  in  force  if,  by 
that  time,  Great  Britain  had  repealed  her  orders  in  council  or 
the  United  States  had  caused  her  "  rights  to  be  respected  by 
the  English." 

This  was  the  intelligence  which,  one  morning  in  August,  \ 
1810,  Pinkney  read  in  the  London  Times.  With  as  little  delay 
as  possible  he  laid  it  before  Lord  Wellesley  and  begged  to  be 
allowed  to  assure  his  Government  that  the  orders  in  council 
of  1807  and  of  April,  1809,  were  revoked.  In  the  reply 

*  July  15,  1810.    American  State  Papers,  Foreign  Affairs,  vol.  iii,  p.  400. 
f  August  5,  1810.  t  August  18,  1810. 


1810.  NON-INTERCOURSE  THREATENED.  369 

Pinkney  was  reminded  that,  two  years  before,*  a  promise  had 
been  given  that  England  would  abandon  her  system  of  orders 
when  France  abandoned  her  system  of  decrees ;  and  that  when 
the  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees  had  really  been  revoked,  when 
the  commerce  of  neutrals  was  really  free,  his  Majesty  would 
gladly  make  the  promise  good.f  To  move  TVellesley  from  this 
position,  to  persuade  him  that  France  was  really  sincere,  to 
convince  him  that  the  decrees  would  be  revoked,  was  impos- 
sible. Indeed,  he  would  not  so  much  as  return  an  answer. 
Nor  is  it  likely  that  he  could  have  answered  if  he  would.  He 
had  quarrelled  with  his  colleagues.  His  colleagues  returned 
his  hate  a  hundred  fold.  Public  business  was  at  a  standstill ; 
the  old  King  for  the  last  time  went  insane,  and  when  Novem- 
ber first  came  the  whole  Government  was  in  dire  confusion. 
On  November  second  Madison  put  forth  his  proclamation,  ~1 
and  three  months'  notice  was  served  on  Great  Britain.  Just  a  f 
week  before  he  had  by  another  proclamation  served  what  might 
well  have  been  called  a  notice  of  ejectment  on  Spain. 

The  downfall  of  the  Spanish  monarchy  and  the  establish- 
ment of  Joseph  Bonaparte  on  the  throne  had  been  followed 
by  revolt  or  by  symptoms  of  revolt  in  almost  every  province 
of  Spanish  America.  Encouraged  by  Great  Britain,  the  people 
of  Buenos  Ayres  rose  in  rebellion  and  drove  out  the  viceroy 
appointed  by  the  Supreme  Junta  of  Spain.  The  people  of 
Caracas  quickly  followed,  and  before  midsummer  Venezuela 
and  New  Granada  and  Mexico  were  in  open  revolt  and  signs 
of  coming  trouble  were  manifest  in  Cuba  and  West  Florida. 
In  "West  Florida  the  first  district  to  feel  the  influence  of  the 
revolutionary  spirit  was  New  Feliciana,  which  lay  along  the 
Mississippi  river  just  across  the  American  boundary  line  of 
thirty-one  degrees.  Into  it,  since  the  purchase  of  Louisiana,  had 
come  hundreds  of  Englishmen,  Spaniards,  and  renegade  Ameri- 
cans, chiefly  land  speculators,  deserters  from  the  army,  and  men 
fleeing  from  debt.  Seeing  in  the  confusion  spreading  through 
all  the  Spanish  provinces  a  fine  opportunity  to  free  themselves 
from  the  arbitrary  rule  of  Spain,  they  began  to  agitate  for 

*  February  23,  1808. 

•f  Wellesley  to  Pinkney,  August  31,  1810.     American  State  Papers,  Foreign 
Affairs,  vol.  iii,  p.  366. 

VOL.  in. — 25 


370  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

what  they  called  a  settled  government,  which  meant  a  govern- 
ment of  their  own  making,  issued  a  call  for  a  convention,  and 
chose  four  delegates.  Baton  Rouge,  St.  Helena,  and  Tanchi- 
paho  responded  to  the  call.  The  Governor,  Don  Carlos  Dehault 
Delassus,  gave  his  consent,  and  late  in  July  the  delegates  met  at 
St.  John's  Plains.*  They  sat  with  closed  doors,  f  and,  after 
deliberating  two  days,  informed  the  Governor  that  they  had 
chosen  a  committee  to  frame  a  plan  of  government  and  had 
adjourned  to  the  second  Monday  in  August.:}:  From  such  in- 
formation as  can  now  be  gathered,  it  seems  that  the  people 
were  of  three  minds.  Some  wanted  an  independent  govern- 
ment. These  were  the  men  of  "tNew  Feliciana.  Some  were 
for  standing  by  Ferdinand  Seventh.  But  the  great  mass  of 
the  people  were  for  annexation  to  the  United  States.*  In 
this  they  were  heartily  supported  by  the  press  of  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee,  which  clamored  loudly  for  meetings  to  express 
the  sentiments  of  the  people.  If,  said  the  news  writers,  the 
United  States  does  not  take  "West  Florida,  Great  Britain  will. 
And  if  Great  Britain  takes  it,  will  the  people  of  these  States, 
of  Mississippi  Territory,  of  the  Territories  of  Louisiana  and 
Indiana,  stand  tamely  by  and  see  themselves  again  cut  off  from 
access  to  the  Gulf  and  from  trade  on  the  Atlantic  ?  Those  who 
wished  for  a  separate  government  drew  up  and  circulated  a  plan. 
It  was  a  curious  mixture  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  was  intended  to 
b6  temporary.  No  laws,  no  contracts  then  in  force,  no  officers 
of  the  militia,  were  to  be  disturbed.  But  a  government,  con- 
sisting of  a  governor,  a  secretary  of  state,  and  three  councillors 
of  state,  chosen  by  the  people,  was  to  be  established.  All  execu- 
tive power  was  to  be  vested  in  the  Governor  ;  all  legislative 
powers  in  the  three  councillors,  and  within  three  years  a  con- 
vention was  to  meet  at  Baton  Rouge  and  frame  a  constitution. 
Mild  as  this  was,  it  was  much  too  radical,  and  when  the 
convention  reassembled  in  August  the  delegates  were  content 
to  suggest  a  few  reforms,  which  Delassus  approved  and  prom- 

*  Democratic  Clarion  and  Tennessee  Gazette,  August  3,  1810. 
f  Democratic  Clarion,  August  17,  1810. 

\  Democratic  Clarion,  August  24,  1810. 

*  Democratic  Clarion,  August  3,  1810. 


1810.  REVOLUTION  IN  WEST  FLORIDA.  371 

ised  to  put  into  execution.  They  recommended  a  provisional 
government  in  the  name  of"  Spain  ;  courts  of  justice  as  much 
like  those  of  the  United  States  as  Spanish  law  would  allow,  a 
militia,  land  offices,  naturalization  of  aliens,  and  a  printing 
press  under  the  control  of  the  Supreme  Court. 

To  such  a  government  the  men  who  wished  for  independ- 
ence and  the  men  who  wished  for  annexation  to  the  United 
States  vowed  they  would  never  submit,  and  soon  had  a  declara- 
tion of  independence,  a  standing  army  of  one  hundred  and 
four  men,  a  lone-star  flag,  a  State,  a  constitution,  and  a  presi- 
dent of  their  own. 

Delassus  having  failed  to  carry  out  the  promised  reforms, 
the  convention  on  the  twenty-second  of  September,  under 
pressure  from  the  malcontents,  commanded  Philemon  Thomas 
to  take  the  Spanish  fort  at  Baton  Rouge.  Hastily  collecting 
a  crowd  of  boatmen,  Thomas  hurried  to  the  fort,  then  de- 
fended by  twenty  half-sick  and  worthless  men  under  the  com- 
mand of  Louis  Grandpre.  Grandpr6  refusing  to  surrender, 
the  Americans  stormed  the  works,  and,  finding  him  standing, 
sword  in  hand,  the  solitary  defender  of  his  flag,  they  basely 
cut  him  down  at  the  foot  of  the  staff.*  Among  the  prisoners 
was  Governor  Delassus.  On  hearing  of  the  success  of  their 
general,  the  convention  declared  West  Florida  a  free  and  inde- 
pendent State,f  and  bade  John  Rhea,  its  president,  offer  terms 
of  annexation  to  the  United  States.  The  terms  he  named  were 
that  "West  Florida  should  be  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a 
State,  or  as  a  Territory,  with  leave  to  govern  itself,  or  at 
least  as  part  of  Orleans ;  that  it  should  be  left  in  full  possession 
of  its  public  lands,  and  that  one  hundred  thousand  dollars 
should  be  loaned  to  it  by  the  United  States.:}: 

The  reply  of  Madison  to  the  offer  of  annexation  was  a 
proclamation  taking  possession  of  the  territory  in  the  name  of 
the  United  States  and  annexing  it  to  Orleans,  and  an  order  to 
the  Governor  of  Orleans  to  see  to  it  that  the  proclamation  was 
carried  out.  Claiborne  was  then  at  Washington.  But  he  was 
sent  at  once  in  the  utmost  haste  by  the  shortest  route  to  Wash- 

*  September  23,  1810. 

f  American  State  Papers,  Foreign  Affairs,  vol.  iii,  p.  396. 

£  American  State  Papers,  Foreign  Affairs,  vol.  iii,  p.  395. 


372  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

«• 
ington,  Mississippi  Territory.     There  lie  was  to  consult  with 

the  Governor  of  Mississippi  and  with  the  commander  of  the 
troops,  and  go  on  without  delay  to  "West  Florida  and  take 
possession  as  far  as  the  Perdido  in  the  name  of  the  United 
States.  Once  in  possession,  he  was  to  mark  out  the  bounds  of 
parishes,  set  up  parish  courts,  organize  the  militia,  and  secure 
to  the  people  the  peaceful  enjoyment  of  their  lives,  their 
property,  and  their  religion. 

Claiborne,  thus  instructed,  rode  southward  with  all  the 
speed  he  could,  and  by  the  end  of  November  was  scattering 
copies  of  the  proclamation  through  the  towns  and  hamlets  of 
"West  Florida.  The  new  State  had  by  that  time  been  organ- 
ized, and  for  governor  had  chosen  Fulwar  Skipwith.  To  him 
the  action  of  Claiborne  was  most  offensive.  His  dignity  was 
insulted.  In  place  of  scattering  the  proclamation  broadcast 
among  the  people,  a  copy  should  first  have  been  brought  to 
him.  He  accordingly  shut  himself  up  in  the  fort  at  Baton 
Rouge,  recalled  Philemon  Thomas,  whom  he  had  sent  to 
attack  Mobile,  and  defied  Claiborne  to  do  his  worst.  Hav- 
ing despatched  Colonel  Pike  to  Mobile  by  land  and  ordered 
the  commander  of  the  gun-boats  at  New  Orleans  to  go  round 
by  sea,  Claiborne  set  off  for  the  seat  of  disorder.  Landing  at 
the  mouth  of  Bayou  Sara,  he  hurried  to  St.  Francisville,  raised 
the  flag  of  the  United  States,  and  made  a  speech  to  the  peo- 
ple. The  moment  he  finished,  Thomas,  the  general  of  the 
new  State,  replied.  The  Government  of  the  United  States, 
he  told  the  people,  had  refused  protection  when  protection  was 
needed,  and  now,  when  it  was  not  wanted,  was  seeking  to  force 
it  upon  them.  He  then  denied  the  claim  of  the  United  States 
to  "West  Florida,  declared  the  proclamation  of  Madison  was  a 
declaration  of  war,  and  announced  his  intention  of  going  to 
the  fort  at  Baton  Rouge  and,  if  need  be,  perishing  in  the 
ruins.  Mounting  his  horse,  he  then  rode  away.  The  chal- 
lenge thus  publicly  given  was  promptly  accepted.  A  messenger 
was  sent  to  recall  the  troops  marching  toward  Mobile.  Gun- 
boats were  ordered  up  from  New  Orleans,  and  in  two  days 
Claiborne  entered  Baton  Rouge.  There  he  at  once  raised  the 
stars  and  stripes.  But  the  malcontents  gathered  in  force,  tore 
it  down,  and  ran  up  the  lone-star  flag  instead.  For  a  while  it 


1811.  REVOLUTION  IN  EAST  FLORIDA.  373 

seemed  not  unlikely  that  force  would  be  needed  to  restore 
order.  But  when  the  troops  and  gun-boats  appeared,  even  the 
fort  was  quietly  surrendered.  Elsewhere  along  the  Mississippi 
the  people  made  no  opposition  to  the  new  order  of  things,  and 
when  the  year  closed  the  flag  of  the  United  States  was  flying 
in  the  districts  of  Baton  Rouge,  New  Feliciana,  St.  Helena, 
St.  Ferdinand,  and  Tanchipaho. 

Beyond  the  Pearl  all  was  confusion.  There  no  law  had 
ever  been  enforced,  no  order  had  ever  been  preserved.  The 
country  had  therefore  long  been  the  resort  of  deserters  from 
the  army,  fugitives  from  justice,  and  men  driven  from  the 
States  by  debt.  By  these  men  the  rising  of  the  people  of 
Bayou  Sara  and  the  founding  of  the  State  of  West  Florida 
was  hailed  as  the  opportunity  of  a  lifetime.  Yisions  of  laws 
of  their  own  making,  of  plantations  of  their  own  choosing, 
of  States  of  their  own  founding,  rose  before  them,  and,  under 
the  lead  of  Reuben  Kemper,  they  marched  against  Mobile. 
The  Spaniards  drove  them  back.  But  the  inroad,  added  to 
the  outbreak  at  Baton  Rouge  and  to  the  neglect  of  his  own 
Government,  so  disgusted  Vincente  Folch,  the  Governor,  that, 
in  a  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  he  offered,  if  succor  did 
not  come  from  Havana  or  Yera  Cruz  before  the  first  day  of 
January,  1811,  to  give  up  both  Floridas  to  the  United  States.* 
A  month  was  required  for  the  letter  to  reach  Washington. 
But  the  moment  it  came,  Madison  sent  it  to  Congress,  with  a 
secret  message  in  which  he  made  two  requests,  f  He  asked  for  a 
declaration  that  the  United  States  could  not,  unconcerned,  see 
the  Floridas  pass  from  the  hands  of  Spain  to  those  of  any  other 
foreign  power.  And  he  asked  for  authority  to  take  possession 
of  the  province  with  the  leave  of  the  Spanish  officials. 

When  the  messenger  bearing  the  confidential  message 
reached  the  Senate  chamber  he  found  the  doors  shut  and  the 
Senate  in  secret  session.  The  business  of  the  session  was  the 
consideration  of  a  bill  concerning  West  Florida.  So  much 
of  the  annual  message  as  related  to  the  occupation  of  that 
territory  had  been  referred  to  a  committee,  and  from  the 

*  Governor  Folch  to  Robert  Smith,  Secretary  of  State,  Mobile,  December  2, 
1810. 

f  January  3,  1811. 


374  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

committee  had  come  the  bill  the  Senate  were  debating.  One 
section  declared  that  all  the  region  south  of  Mississippi  Terri- 
tory, east  of  the  Mississippi  river,  and  west  of  the  Perdido  was 
part  of  the  Territory  of  Orleans.  Another  spread  over  it  all 
the  laws  then  in  force  in  Orleans.  Two  more  sections  related 
to  claims  and  titles  to  land.  The  debate  which  sprang  up  was 
long  and  animated.  Speakers  on  the  one  side  denounced  the 
proclamation  as  unconstitutional  and  illegal,  as  a  declaration 
of  war  and  an  act  of  legislation.  A  declaration  of  war  be- 
cause it  directed  the  occupation  of  the  country  by  a  military 
force.  An  act  of  legislation  because  it  joined  the  country  to 
a  territory  of  the  United  States,  and  gave  to  Claiborne  the 
same  authority  in  West  Florida  that  he  had  in  Orleans. 
Speakers  on  the  other  side  defended  the  occupation  of  West 
Florida  as  an  act  of  prudence,  of  necessity,  of  self-preserva- 
tion. Federalists  raised  the  cry  of  French  influence,  com- 
pared the  respectful  treatment  of  Spain  when  an  ally  of 
France  and  an  enemy  to  England  with  the  high-handed  treat- 
ment of  her  now  she  was  the  enemy  of  France  and  the  ally 
of  England,  and  pronounced  the  occupation  a  piece  of  rob- 
bery. Republicans  denied  that  the  proclamation  was  an  act 
of  legislation,  denied  that  the  President  had  assumed  the 
war  power,  denied  that  West  Florida  was  not  rightfully  ours, 
and  taunted  the  Federalists  with  having  always  been  under  the 
influence  of  his  Britannic  Majesty. 

In  the  midst  of  the  debate  came  the  confidential  message, 
with  the  letter  of  Governor  Folch.  What  then  took  place  can 
never  be  fully  known.  Debates  in  secret  session  were  not  al- 
ways reported.  It  is  enough,  however,  to  know  that  two  weeks 
later  Madison  signed  a  joint  resolution  and  a  bill.  The  resolu- 
tion set, forth  that,  considering  the  situation  of  Spain  and  of 
her  American  colonies,  and  considering  the  influence  which 
Florida  must  always  exert  on  the  peace,  the  tranquillity,  the 
commerce  of  the  United  States,  it  was  impossible  without 
alarm  to  see  any  part  of  it  pass  into  the  hands  of  any  foreign 
power;  that  a  due  regard  for  safety  made  it  necessary  to 
occupy  the  territory ;  but  that  the  occupation  should  be  tem- 
porary and  subject  to  negotiation  in  the  future. 

The  bill,  based  on  the  letter  of  Folch,  authorized  the  Presi- 


1811.  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA.  375 

dent  to  take  and  hold  Florida  east  of  the  Perdido  under 
either  of  two  conditions.  If  the  local  authorities  were  will- 
ing to  give  it  up,  or  if  any  foreign  power  attempted  to  occupy 
it,  he  was  to  seize  it ;  use,  if  necessary,  the  army  and  navy ; 
expend,  if  necessary,  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  ;  set  up  a 
temporary  government,  and  vest  the  civil,  military,  and  judicial 
powers  in  such  persons  as  he  thought  fit.*  Madison  appointed 
General  George  Matthews  and  Colonel  John  McKee  commis- 
sioners to  carry  out  the  law,  and  ordered  their  instructions  to 
be  made  ready  immediately. 

Thus,  while  the  United  States  claimed  all  the  Territory 
from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Perdido,  her  authority  did  not 
really  extend  to  Mobile.  Indeed,  there  is  no  reason  to  believe 
that  our  flag  could  be  seen  in  a  single  district  beyond  the  Pearl. 
To  the  Pearl,  however,  Congress  was  not  ready  to  enforce  au- 
thority, and,  by  the  act  authorizing  the  people  of  Orleans  to 
frame  a  constitution  and  seek  admission  as  a  State,  the  Missis- 
sippi, the  Iberville,  Lake  Maurepas,  Lake  Pontchartrain,  and 
the  Gulf  were  made  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  State  of 
Louisiana.  A  petition  from  the  Territorial  Legislature,  asking 
for  the  admission  of  Orleans  as  a  State,  had  been  laid  before 
the  House  early  in  the  session,  and  a  bill  had  passed  the  third 
reading  without  much  debate.  But,  when  the  engrossed  bill 
reached  the  Clerk's  desk  and  the  Speaker  put  the  question, 
"  Shall  the  bill  pass  ? "  the  debate  opened  in  earnest. 

Whenever  a  bill  is  offered  for  our  sanction,  said  the  Feder- 
alists, it  is  proper  that  we  should  ask  ourselves  two  questions : 
Is  it  constitutional  ?  Is  it  expedient  ?  If  the  answer  to  each  ques- 
tion be  Yes,  our  duty  is  clear,  and  it  must  pass.  If  the  answer  to 
either  be  No,  our  duty  is  likewise  clear,  and  we  must  oppose  it. 
In  the  case  of  the  bill  now  before  us,  a  double  reason  exists  for 
rejecting  it,  for  the  only  answers  we  can  make  are :  It  is  most 
inexpedient,  it  is  most  unconstitutional.  By  the  enacting 
clause  of  the  Constitution,  that  instrument  was  ordained  and 

*  Just  before  the  session  closed  an  act  was  passed  forbidding  the  joint  reso- 
lution and  the  law  to  be  promulgated  before  the  end  of  the  next  session  of  Con- 
gress. They  were  not  promulgated  till  published  in  the  Session  Acts  of  the  15th 
Congress,  ending  April  20,  1818.  Peter's  Statute  at  Large  of  the  United  States, 
edition,  1847,  vol.  iii,  pp.  471,  472. 


376  DEIFTING  INTO  WAK.  CHAP.  xx. 

established  by  the  then  existing  United  States.  Neither  the 
men  who  framed  it  nor  the  men  who  adopted  it  ever  intended 
to  extend  its  benefits  to  a  people  who  did  not  then,  or  should 
hereafter,  live  within  the  bounds  of  the  United  States  as  de- 
fined in  the  treaty  of  1783.  Orleans  was  not  within  these 
limits.  It  cannot,  then,  be  admitted  to  our  Union.  If  we 
may  extend  our  limits  at  all,  where  is  that  extension  to  end  ? 
If  we  may  admit  States  formed  from  territory  outside  our 
constitutional  boundary,  who  can  fix  the  number  of  such 
States  ?  Purchase  and  conquest  are  not  ended.  Napoleon  may 
soon  have  more  land  to  sell.  We  are  at  this  moment  prepar- 
ing to  take  West  Florida  from  Spain.  Who  can  say  but  that 
in  time  we  may  own  some  of  the  West  Indies,  and  the  whole 
of  South  America  besides  ?  If  so,  on  the  same  principle  that 
we  form  Orleans  into  a  State  we  may  from  these  new  territo- 
ries make  many  more  new  States.  What,  then,  will  become 
of  the  old  States  of  the  Union,  the  States  that  first  entered 
into  the  compact  contained  in  the  Constitution,  and  for  whose 
benefit  alone  that  instrument  was  made  ?  Their  independence 
will  go.  Their  interest,  their  welfare,  their  wishes  will  be 
neglected,  and  they  will  find  that,  instead  of  annexing  new 
States  to  the  Union,  they  have  annexed  the  old  Union  to  a 
band  of  foreign  States.  The  bill  again  provides  that  the 
people  of  Orleans  shall  be  admitted  into  the  Union  on  the 
same  footing  with  the  original  States.  This  is  impossible. 
No  man  can  be  a  senator  of  the  United  States  who  has  not 
been  nine  years  a  citizen  of  the  United  States.  The  people  of 
Orleans  have  been  citizens  but  a  little  more  than  seven  years. 
No  man  can  be  President  of  the  United  States  who  is  not  na- 
tive born,  or  was  not  resident  in  the  United  States  on  the  day 
independence  was  declared.  Can  the  people  of  Orleans  satisfy 
these  conditions  ?  Can  a  State  be  said  to  be  on  the  same  foot- 
ing with  the  original  States  when  the  great  mass  of  her  citizens 
are  denied  rights  the  citizens  of  other  States  enjoy,  when  her 
men  can  not  for  years  to  come  have  a  seat  in  the  United  States 
Senate,  and  can  never,  in  the  whole  course  of  their  lives,  be 
eligible  to  the  Presidency  ? 

The  speech  which  threw  the  House  into  violent  commotion, 
and  was  read  out  of  doors  with  the  deepest  interest,  was  made 


1811.  ADMISSION  OF  LOUISIANA.  377 

by  Josiali  Quincy.  He  began  by  declaring  that  lie  was  second 
to  no  man  in  attachment  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union. 
Yet,  much  as  he  loved  the  Union,  he  could  not  but  feel  that,  if 
the  bill  to  admit  Orleans  passed,  the  bonds  of  the  Union  were 
dissolved.  That  the  States  which  composed  it  were  free  from 
their  moral  obligations.  That  as  it  would  be  the  right  of  all, 
so  it  would  be  the  duty  of  some  to  prepare  for  a  separation, 
peaceably  if  they  could,  forcibly  if  they  must.  Hardly  were 
the  words  out  of  his  mouth  when  George  Poindexter,  the  dele- 
gate from  Mississippi  Territory,  called  him  to  order.  The 
Speaker,  after  some  debate,  declared  the  point  well  taken.  Mr. 
Quincy  thereupon  appealed  to  the  House,  and  the  House,  by  a 
vote  of  fifty-six  to  fifty-three,  sustained  him.  Continuing  his 
speech,  he  went  on  to  say  that  the  meaning  of  the  Constitution 
need  not  be  misunderstood.  The  origin  of  it  was  not  concealed 
by  the  mists  of  time,  nor  hidden  by  the  darkness  of  unexplored 
ages.  It  had  been  framed  within  the  recollection  of  every  man 
who  heard  him,  by  men  still  living.  It  was  a  political  compact, 
made  by  "  We,  the  people  of  the  United  States."  It  was  made 
"  for  ourselves  and  our  posterity,"  and  not  for  the  people  of 
New  Orleans,  nor  for  the  people  of  Louisiana.  They  did  not, 
they  cannot,  enter  into  the  scope  of  the  Constitution,  for  it 
embraces  only  the  United  States  of  America.  New  States 
may,  indeed,  be  admitted  to  this  Union.  But  they  must  be 
made  from  territory  within  the  original  limits  of  the  United 
States.  No  power  has  been  delegated  to  Congress  to  admit 
foreigners  to  a  share  of  political  power  under  the  compact. 
The  introduction  of  a  new  associate  will  be  followed  by  a  new 
division  of  power,  and  a  new  division  by  a  lessening  of  the 
share  held  by  the  old  partners.  Can  this  be  done  without 
unanimous  consent?  Suppose,  in  private  life,  that  thirteen 
men  form  a  partnership,  and  that  ten  of  them  undertake  to 
admit  a  new  partner  without  the  consent  of  the  other  three. 
Would  it  not  be  at  the  option  of  the  three  to  abandon  the 
partnership  after  so  palpable  an  infringement  of  their  rights  ? 
Does  any  one  suppose  that  the  people  of  the  Northern  and 
Atlantic  States  will  with  patience  behold  senators  and  repre- 
sentatives from  States  beyond  the  Missouri  and  the  Red  rivers 
pour  in  on  Congress,  manage  as  they  see  fit  the  affairs  of  a 


378  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

seaboard  fifteen  hundred  miles  away  from  their  homes,  and 
rule  a  body  into  which  they  have  come  unconstitutionally? 
They  neither  will  see  it  nor  ought  to  see  it. 

He  was  told  in  reply  that  the  bill  was  perfectly  constitu- 
tional. He  was  reminded  that  the  fourth  article  of  the  Con- 
stitution gave  Congress  power  to  dispose  of  and  make  all  need- 
ful rules  and  regulations  respecting  the  territory  of  the  United 
States.  That  power  to  dispose  of  territory  presupposed  power 
to  hold  territory,  and  that  power  to  hold*  and  dispose  of  it 
presupposed  the  power  to  acquire  it.  That  it  could  be  ac- 
quired by  conquest  under  the  war  powers,  or  by  purchase 
under  the  treaty  powers.  That  treaties  were  the  supreme  law 
of  the  land.  That  Louisiana  had  been  acquired  by  treaty ;  that 
one  of  the  provisions  of  the  treaty  was  that  the  people  of 
Louisiana  were  to  be  incorporated  into  the  Union  and  admit- 
ted as  soon  as  possible,  and  that  this  provision  was  not  only 
constitutional,  but  was  also  the  supreme  law  of  the  land,  and 
must  be  obeyed.  "When  at  last  the  vote  was  taken,  the  yeas 
were  seventy-seven  and  the  nays  thirty-six.  Of  the  minority, 
twenty  were  from  the  New  England  States  ;  the  rest  came 
from  the  Atlantic  States,  every  one  of  them  save  New  Jersey, 
South  Carolina,  and  Georgia  giving  at  least  two  votes.  The 
Senate  having  made  several  amendments  to  the  bill,  to  which 
the  House  reluctantly  agreed,  the  President  promptly  signed  it. 

The  bounds  of  the  new  State  were  fixed  as  the  Sabine 
from  its  mouth  to  the  thirty-second  degree  of  north  latitude, 
thence  due  north  to  the  thirty-third  degree,  eastward  along 
the  thirty-third  degree  to  the  Mississippi,  down  the  Missis- 
sippi to  the  Iberville,  through  the  middle  of  the  Iberville, 
Lake  Maurepas,  and  Lake  Pontchartrain  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
and  along  the  Gulf  to  the  point  of  beginning.  All  free  white 
male  citizens  of  the  United  States,  twenty-one  years  old,  pay- 
ing a  parish  tax  and  dwelling  within  these  bounds,  were,  on 
the  third  Monday  of  September,  to  choose  delegates  to  a  con- 
vention. The  convention  was  to  meet  on  the  third  Monday 
in  November,  and,  if  it  saw  fit,  frame  a  constitution  and  adopt 
that  of  the  United  States.  The  State  Constitution,  it  was  ex- 
pressly enjoined,  must  be  republican  in  form,  must  contain  the 
fundamental  principle  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  and  must 


1811.  BANK  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  379 

secure  to  each  citizen  trial  by  jury  in  all  criminal  cases  and  the 
privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  The  convention,  it  was 
further  required,  must,  in  the  name  of  the  new  State,  renounce 
all  claims  to  waste  and  unappropriated  land;  must  promise 
that  no  State,  no  county,  town,  or  parish  tax  should  be  laid 
on  land  sold  by  the  United  States  till  five  years  after  the 
day  of  sale ;  that  the  lands  of  non-residents  should  never  be 
taxed  higher  than  the  lands  of  residents;  and  must  declare 
the  navigable  waters  of  the  State  open  to  every  citizen  of  the 
United  States,  without  any  tax,  duty,  impost,  or  toll  whatever. 
The  United  States,  on  the  other  hand,  promised  that  of  the 
net  proceeds  of  land  sold  after  the  first  day  of  January, 

1812,  five  per  cent,  should  be  expended  in  building  roads  and 
levees. 

"While  the  President  was  writing  his  name  at  the  foot  of 
this  act,  bills  to  recharter  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  were 
rejected  by  both  the  Senate  and  the  House,  and,  as  the  charter 
required,  the  Bank  went  out  of  business  on  March  fourth,  1811. 
That  such  an  institution,  after  such  a  long  and  prosperous 
career,  should,  at  such  a  moment,  have  been  destroyed  is  a 
complete  commentary  on  the  financial  and  economic  notions  of 
the  day.  But  the  causes  which  led  to  its  overthrow  were  all 
but  irresistible.  The  enemies  of  the  Bank  were  made  up,  on 
the  one  hand,  of  a  large  number  of  old  Republicans,  who  had 
never  forgotten  the  arguments  in  use  in  1791,  who  still  denied 
the  right  of  Congress  to  charter  any  corporation,  who  still 
asserted  that  a  bank  charter  could  not  constitutionally  be 
granted,  and  who  still  described  the  Bank  as  a  monarchical 
institution,  as  an  instrument  of  despotism,  as  a  many-headed 
monopoly,  as  a  lingering  and  oppressive  remnant  of  that 
strongly  centralized  government  the  Federalists  had  set  up, 
and  which  the  Republicans  were  in  duty  bound  to  destroy. 
With  them  in  their  opposition  were  joined  two  other  classes 
of  more  recent  date :  the  men  who,  affecting  the  guise  of 
earnest  patriots,  complained  that  the  Bank  was  in  the  hands  of 
Englishmen ;  that  two  thirds  of  the  capital  stock  was  owned 
in  England,  and  that  large  dividends  which  ought  to  remain 
in  America  were  every  year  drawn  over  to  London ;  and  the 
men  who,  excited  by  these  dividends,  longed  for  the  winding 


380  DRIFTING  INTO  "WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

up  of  the  Bank  and  its  branches,  in  order  that  the  business  it 
did  might  be  shared  by  State  corporations.* 

Of  late  years  the  number  of  these  institutions  had  increased 
to  a  surprising  extent.  On  the  fourth  of  July,  1791,  when  the 
books  of  the  United  States  Bank  were  opened  at  Philadelphia, 
there  were  but  three  in  existence.  But  the  establishment  of  a 
permanent  and  vigorous  government,  the  creation  of  public 
credit  by  the  transmutation  of  the  old  Congress  lottery  certifi- 
cates, loan-office  certificates,  interest  indents,  commissioner's 
certificates,  army  certificates,  final  settlements,  continental 
money,  all  the  worthless  remnants  of  the  financial  make- 
shifts of  the  Confederation  into  stock,  bearing  interest  and 
selling  at  a  premium,  had  called  out  from  the  old  stockings, 
the  strong-boxes,  the  garret  floors,  much  of  the  hidden  capital 
of  the  people.  A  period  of  wide-spread  speculation  followed, 
and  in  that  period  subscribing  to  the  capital  stock  of  a  bank 
became  as  favorite  a  way  of  investing  money  as  subscribing  to 
the  stock  of  a  company  to  build  a  turnpike  or  dig  a  canal. 
Six  new  banks  were  chartered  in  1792,  and,  in  spite  of  the 
head-shaking  of  prudent  men,  did  a  large  business  and  paid 
out  each  year  great  sums  in  dividends.  Eagerness  to  share 
this  success  produced  others,  and  these  too,  in  spite  of  prog- 
nostication of  failure,  grew  prosperous  and  rich.  War  had 
broken  out  between  France  and  England.  The  markets  of 
the  "West  Indies  were  for  the  first  time  opened  to  our  mer- 
chants. Trade  instantly  revived  and  developed  to  an  extent 
which  then  seemed  fabulous.  Demands  for  discounts  and 
capital  with  which  to  build  ships,  to  buy  produce,  to  move 
produce  to  the  seaports,  surpassed  the  ability  of  the  banks  to 
meet  them.  Their  profits  were  immense.  Eagerness  to  share 
them  was  again  excited,  and  with  the  new  capital  created  by 

*  The  controversy,  as  usual,  called  out  a  host  of  pamphlets  and  newspaper 
essays.  The  fiercest  of  the  anti-bank  essays  are  in  the  Aurora  for  January  and 
February,  1811.  The  pamphlets  are  "Bank  Torpedo,  or  Bank  Notes  proved  to 
be  Robbery."  By  R.  Davis.  "  Desultory  Remarks  upon  the  Ruinous  Conse- 
quences of  the  Non-renewal  of  the  Charter  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States." 
By  M.  Carey.  "  Considerations  on  the  Approaching  Dissolution  of  the  United 
States  Bank."  By  Jesse  Atwater.  "  Nine  Letters  to  Dr.  Adam  Seybert,  Repre- 
sentative from  Philadelphia  to  Congress."  By  M.  Carey.  "Paragraphs  on  Bank- 
ing." By  Erich  Bollmann. 


1811.  THE  PEOPLE  AND  THE  BANK.  381 

the  trade  more  banks  were  founded.  And  now  they  began  to 
move  from  the  seaboard  inland,  and  to  spring  up  in  places 
where,  five  years  before,  such  institutions  had  never  been 
thought  of.  In  1Y95  the  number  was  twenty.  By  1800  it 
had  risen  to  twenty-seven.  Five  years  later  sixty-four  are 
known  to  have  been  doing  business,  and  these  in  1810  had 
been  increased  to  over  one  hundred  and  three. 

The  charge  was  often  brought  against  these  banks  that 
they  did  business  in  a  reckless,  law-defying  way,  favored  political 
friends,  gave  credit  to  men  who  did  not  deserve  it,  and  issued 
notes  far  in  excess  of  their  ability  to  redeem.  That  many 
of  these  things  were  done  is  undoubtedly  true,  but  that  any 
serious  over-issue  of  notes  took  place  may  well  be  questioned. 
Indeed,  the  chief  cause  of  the  deadly  hatred  which  many  of 
the  State  banks  felt  for  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  was 
the  vigilance  with  which  it  watched  their  issues  and  the  inces- 
sant calls  it  made  on  them  to  redeem.  Of  all  arguments  used 
by  the  State  banks  to  excite  animosity  against  the  United 
States  Bank,  this  seems  to  have  been  the  most  powerful  and 
the  most  common.  If  a  customer  applied  to  any  of  them  for 
a  discount  or  a  loan  it  was  not  safe  to  make,  the  blame  was 
laid  on  the  vulture,  on  the  hydra,  on  the  Cerberus,  which,  by 
enjoying  the  sole  right  to  receive  Government  money,  kept 
thousands  of  dollars  out  of  their  strong-boxes,  and,  by  con- 
stantly presenting  bills  for  redemption,  forced  them  to  keep 
in  their  strong-boxes  thousands  more  they  would  gladly  loan. 
Even  such  as  were  accommodated  went  away  feeling  sure  that 
better  terms  could  have  been  made  had  it  not  been  for  the 
harsh  manner  in  which  the  State  institutions  were  treated  by 
the  Federal  monster. 

The  friends  of  the  Bank,  on  the  other  hand,  labored  hard 
to  explain  the  evils  that  would  surely  attend  its  downfall.  It 
was  true,  they  admitted,  that  the  deposits  in  the  State  banks 
would  be  greatly  increased  and  their  business  proportionately 
enlarged.  But  it  was  also  true  that  the  capital  of  the  country 
would  be  reduced  by  the  millions  of  specie  sent  to  England  to 
buy  back  the  stock  which  Americans — nay,  which  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States — had  deliberately  sold  to  the  Ba- 
rings of  London ;  that  the  rate  of  exchange  between  distant 


382  DEIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

cities  would  go  up  very  considerably,  because  no  other  bank 
had  branches  in  all  the  chief  cities  from  Boston  to  New  Or- 
leans ;  and  that  the  circulating  medium  of  the  country  would 
be  severely  contracted  by  calling  in  the  five  millions  of  dollars 
of  bank  notes  passing  current  from  the  district  of  Maine  to 
the  Territory  of  Louisiana. 

The  enemies  of  recharter,  well  knowing  that  much  would 
be  made  of  this  last  argument,  determined  to  destroy  it  by  in- 
flating the  currency  and  thus  preventing  the  evils  a  contrac- 
tion was  expected  to  produce.  Congress,  therefore,  had  not 
been  many  hours  in  session — indeed,  the  President's  message 
had  not  been  read — when  Senator  Smith,  of  Maryland,  gave 
notice  that  he  would  on  the  morrow  ask  leave  to  bring  in  a 
bill  to  suspend  a  certain  section  of  an  old  law.  The  law  had 
been  enacted  in  1793,  and  in  the  course  of  the  seventeen  years 
winch  had  since  elapsed  the  section  in  question  had  been  some- 
times on  and  sometimes  off  the  Statute-book.  It  provided  that, 
three  years  after  the  day  whereon  the  first  gold  coin  and  silver 
coins  were  struck  at  the  Philadelphia  mint,  the  coins  of  foreign 
nations,  the  Spanish  milled  dollar  and  its  parts  alone  excepted, 
should  cease  to  be  legal  tender  for  debts  in  the  United  States. 
The  day  came  in  1797.  But  the  output  of  the  mint  was  not 
large  enough  to  enable  the  merchants  to  pay  their  custom 
dues,  and  in  1798  the  section  was  suspended  for  three  years 
to  come,  only  to  be  again  suspended  in  1802  and  in  1806. 
Since  1809  it  had  been  in  force. 

To  the  people  it  made  little  difference  whether  the  coins 
were  legal-tender  or  were  not  legal-tender  money.  They  were 
seen  everywhere,  were  used  everywhere  to  discharge  debts, 
and  were  taken  by  the  banks  at  certain  rates  which  were 
posted  in  the  coffee-houses,  in  the  exchanges,  in  the  inns  and 
taverns,  or  hotels  as  they  were  now  called,  and  were  from  time 
to  time  printed  in  the  newspapers  and  the  almanacs.  Practi- 
cally the  law  was  a  dead  letter,  yet  it  might  be  enforced,  and, 
lest  it  should  be,  and  all  the  blame  for  a  contracted  currency  be 
laid  on  the  opponents  of  recharter,  Smith  brought  in  his  bill 
to  once  more  suspend  the  section.  The  measure  was  popular. 
The '  friends  of  the  Bank  were  most  anxious  to  arouse  as  little 
animosity  as  possible,  and  gladly  sent  the  bill  on  to  the  House. 


1810.  CIRCULATION  OF  FOREIGN  COINS.  383 

There  for  the  first  time  the  effects  of  such  a  law  were  care- 
fully examined.  The  committee  having  the  bill  in  charge 
consulted  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  reported  that 
they  heartily  approved  the  plan  and  heartily  disapproved  of 
the  manner  in  which  it  was  to  be  carried  out.  No  one  could 
doubt  that  the  circulating  medium  of  the  country  was  wholly 
inadequate  to  the  ordinary  purposes  of  domestic  exchange. 
No  one  could  doubt  but  that,  if  the  Bank  of  the  United  States 
was  not  rechartered,  the  currency  would  be  still  less  equal  to 
the  demands  of  trade,  and  that  the  just  sphere  of  mercantile  ac- 
tion would  be  yet  more  limited.  This  ought  not  to  be  allowed. 
No  statute  tending  to  produce  such  a  condition  of  affairs 
should  be  suffered  to  stand,  and  the  committee  were  therefore 
in  favor  of  making  foreign  gold  coins  current  money  and  legal 
tender  for  debts.  But,  should  the  law  of  1793  be  suspended, 
as  the  Senate  proposed,  the  law  of  1806  would  be  revived ; 
and  should  the  law  of  1806  be  revived,  the  gold  coins  of  Spain 
would  pass  at  four  per  cent,  above  their  real  intrinsic  value. 
Every  man,  in  other  words,  who  was  compelled  to  receive 
these  coins  in  payment  of  a  debt  would,  in  fact,  be  compelled 
to  receive  ninety-six  instead  of  one  hundred  cents  on  every 
dollar  paid  him.  The  effect  of  thus  putting  a  particular  coin 
in  circulation  at  a  rate  higher  than  its  true  value  would  be  that 
every  man  who  had  a  debt  to  pay,  every  bank  that  had  paper 
to  redeem,  would  henceforth  make  payment  in  Spanish  gold 
coin ;  a  heavy  importation  of  the  debased  money  would  fol- 
low, bank  paper  would  depreciate,  and  coins  whose  true  value 
and  whose  legal  value  were  the  same  would  quickly  disappear 
from  circulation.  The  committee  urged  the  House  not  to  do 
this,  and  recommended  that  all  the  Senate  bill  after  the  enact- 
ing clause  be  stricken  out  and  a  new  bill,  framed  on  honest 
principles,  be  inserted.  By  a  joint  vote  of  four  to  one  the 
House  passed  such  an  amended  bill  and  sent  it  back  to  the 
Senate.  But  Smith  and  his  friends  recognized  the  handiwork 
of  Gallatin,  refused  to  accept  the  amendments,  split  their  party, 
and  succeeded  in  putting  off  consideration  of  the  bill  till  the 
first  Monday  in  June.  But  Congress  must  rise  on  the  fourth 
of  March.  The  Senate  by  this  action  declared,  therefore,  that 
it  would  no  longer  consider  the  matter.  To  this  mind  the 


384  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

senators  were  easily  brought,  for  the  representatives  were  at 
that  very  moment  hotly  debating  the  question  of  rechartering 
the  Bank.  It  was  well  known  that  the  vote  would  be  close. 
Both  parties  were  therefore  loath  to  provoke  a  quarrel  with 
the  House  by  a  summary  rejection  of  its  Foreign  Coinage  Act, 
lest  that  rejection  should  cost  them  votes  on  a  matter  of  far 
greater  importance. 

The  contest  over  the  Bank  began  in  the  Senate  with  the 
reading  of  a  memorial  from  the  president  and  directors.  The 
memorial  asked  for  a  recharter,  dwelt  at  length  on  the  services 
and  usefulness  of  the  institution  to  merchants,  to  traders,  to 
the  State  banks,  to  the  Government,  and  was  sent  to  a  select 
committee  to  report.  Before  the  committee  was  ready  to  re- 
port, other  petitions  followed.  They  came  from  the  Columbian 
Insurance  Company  and  the  Ocean  Insurance  Company  at 
New  York,  from  the  Baltimore  Insurance  Company,  from  the 
Master  Mechanics  of  Philadelphia,  from  citizens  of  Philadel- 
phia, citizens  of  Kentucky,  citizens  of  New  York,  the  Bank 
of  New  York,  and  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  Philadel- 
phia. One  only  was  sent  in  by  the  opposition,  and  that  bore 
the  signature  of  people  living  in  Pittsburg.  Such  as  were  in 
favor  of  recharter  reminded  Congress  that  it  was  about  to  do 
an  act  on  which  depended  the  financial  prosperity  of  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  business  men.  The  hour  was  a  critical  one. 
Many  things  had  conspired  to  make  it  a  time  of  distress,  of 
embarrassment,  of  great  pecuniary  losses.  The  aggression  of 
foreign  powers  on  our  neutral  rights,  the  sequestration  of  our 
ships  and  cargoes,  the  hindrances  which  in  every  quarter  of 
the  globe  beset  our  commerce,  had  stripped  the  merchants  of 
their  usual  resources.  Never  had  there  been  a  time  in  the 
history  of  the  country  when  the  demand  for  money  had  been 
so  great  as  at  that  moment.  The  State  banks  had  gone  to  the 
very  limit  of  safety,  in  hopes  of  relieving  the  distress.  The 
Bank  of  the  United  States,  though  its  charter  was  in  danger, 
had  forborne  to  reduce  its  loans,  lest  it  should  aggravate  the 
distress  every  one  else  was  seeking  to  alleviate.  But,  should 
Congress  refuse  a  renewal  of  its  charter,  the  Bank  must  call  in 
its  loans,  the  merchants  and  the  State  banks  must  be  pressed 
yet  harder,  and  near  seven  millions  of  specie  sent  abroad  to 


1811.  PETITIONS  FOE   RECHARTER.  385 

redeem  the  stock  held  by  Englishmen.  Seeing  this  general 
stringency,  the  people  would  lose  faith,  first  in  the  banks  and 
then  in  each  other.  All  credit  would  vanish,  and  such  a  period 
of  financial  ruin  would  follow  as  the  country  had  never  known. 

With  the  petitions  from  Philadelphia  came  delegations 
representing  the  merchants,  the  manufacturers,  the  carpenters, 
the  ship-builders,  the  rope-makers,  the  curriers  of  leather — 
all  of  whom  gave  testimony  before  the  committee.  One  rich 
manufacturer  of  tobacco,  in  whose  works  were  employed 
one  hundred  men  and  whose  daily  pay-roll  was  one  hundred 
and  sixty  dollars,  told  the  committee  that  the  stoppage  of  the 
Bank  would  produce  such  scenes  of  distress  in  Philadelphia 
as  it  was  harrowing  to  contemplate ;  that  already  credit  was 
shaken,  and  that  money,  even  for  a  short  time,  could  not  be 
had  on  the  best  security.  Another,  a  master  ship-carpenter, 
displayed  a  list  of  nine  thousand  one  hundred  and  forty-five 
tons  of  shipping  then  on  the  stocks,  assured  the  committee 
that  this  work  gave  a  livelihood  to  two  thousand  men,  that  the 
capital  thus  invested  was  largely  obtained  on  notes  discounted 
by  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  and  that  should  that  institu- 
tion be  discontinued,  every  ship  would  instantly  be  abandoned 
and  every  ship-carpenter  forced  to  emigrate  to  Canada  in  search 
of  bread.  A  house-carpenter  knew  of  five  hundred  brick 
houses  then  going  up  in  the  city.  Three  hundred  belonged  to 
mechanics  who  had  borrowed  the  money  to  build,  and  who,  in 
the  event  of  the  refusal  of  a  charter,  would  be  in  dire  distress 
or  ruin.  Yet  another,  who  annually  turned  a  hundred  tons  of 
hemp  into  rope,  declared  that  of  late  times  and  credit  were  so 
bad  that  he  could  make  no  sales.  Hemp,  which  a  year  before 
brought  three  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  ton,  could  not  now 
find  a  market  at  two  hundred.  A  currier  complained  that  he 
could  not  carry  on  his  business,  for  such  was  the  financial  con- 
dition produced  by  the  fear  of  a  dissolution  of  the  Bank  that 
he  could  neither  collect  old  debts,  sell  new  stock,  nor  get  a 
discount  under  two  per  cent  a  month. 

Believing  these  warnings  of  disaster  to  be  well  founded, 
the  majority  of  the  committee  reported  a  bill  to  amend  and 
continue  in  force  the  old  charter  of  1Y91.  The  new  bank  was 
to  pay  a  bonus  of  a  million  and  a  half,  allow  interest  on  all 

VOL.  in. — 26 


386  DRIFTING  INTO   WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

Government  money  above  one  million  dollars  deposited  for 
more  than  a  year,  and  have  no  voting  stockholders  who  were 
not  citizens  of  the  United  States.  The  former  pledge  that 
during  the  life  of  the  charter  no  other  bank  should  be  created 
by  Congress  was  not  to  be  renewed. 

With  all  that  was  said  by  the  many  speakers  in  the  long 
debate  which  now  followed  we  need  not,  most  happily,  concern 
ourselves,  for  there  were  then  in  the  Senate  two  men — one 
supporting  the  affirmative  and  one  the  negative  side — whose 
later  careers  give  to  their  remarks  on  that  great  question  an 
interest  of  no  common  kind.  The  one  was  William  Henry 
Crawford,  of  Georgia.  The  other  was  Henry  Clay. 

Crawford  was  chairman  of  the  committee,  and,  in  response 
to  repeated  calls  for  the  reasons  why  the  bill  was  reported,  rose 
and  said  :  "  Mr.  President :  It  is  contended  by  those  who  op- 
pose the  passage  of  this  bill  that  Congress  can  exercise  no 
power  by  implication.  Let  us,  sir,  take  a  view  of  the  Consti- 
tution on  this  supposition  and  see  how  the  exclusion  of  power 
by  implication  can  be  reconciled  to  the  most  important  acts 
of  Government.  The  Constitution  has  expressly  given  Con- 
gress power  to  set  up  tribunals  inferior  to  the  Supreme  Court, 
but  it  has  nowhere  expressly  given  Congress  power  to  estab- 
lish a  supreme  court.  By  the  exercise  of  a  right  existing  only 
by  implication,  Congress  has  organized  a  supreme  court,  and 
then,  as  incidental  to  power  existing  only  by  implication,  has 
passed  laws  to  punish  offences  against  the  law  by  which  the 
Court  has  been  created.  Sir,  the  right  of  the  Government  to 
accept  the  District  of  Columbia  exists  only  by  implication. 
The  right  of  the  Government  to  purchase  or  accept  of  places 
for  the  erection  of  forts,  magazines,  arsenals,  dock-yards,  ex- 
ists only  by  implication.  The  power  expressly  given  by  the 
Constitution  is  that  of  exercising  *  exclusive  legislation '  over 
such  places.  The  right  to  accept  or  purchase  is  nowhere  ex- 
pressly granted.  In  the  same  way,  according  to  the  construc- 
tion given  to  other  parts  of  the  Constitution,  power  to  incor- 
porate a  bank  may  be  regarded  as  incidental  to  power  to  lay 
and  collect  taxes,  duties,  imposts,  and  excises,  and  to  pass  all 
laws  necessary  and  proper  to  put  these  powers  into  effect.  It 
is  true  that  a  law  to  found  a  bank  is  not  a  law  to  lay  or  collect 


1811.  CRAWFOED  DEFENDS  THE  BANK.  387 

taxes,  duties,  or  imposts.  Neither  is  a  law  to  build  a  light-house 
a  law  to  regulate  commerce.  Yet,  as  incidental  to  the  power  to 
regulate  commerce,  Congress  puts  up  light-houses,  because  they 
facilitate  and  promote  the  security  of  commerce.  In  the  same 
way  Congress  may  charter  a  bank,  because  it  will  facilitate  the 
collection  of  the  revenue,  the  safe-keeping,  the  easy  and  speedy 
transmission  of  public  money.  It  is  necessary  and  proper, 
therefore,  to  enable  the  Government  to  carry  into  complete 
effect  the  right  to  lay  and  collect  taxes,  duties,  imposts,  and 
excises. 

"  But  it  is  said  that  the  States  have  reserved  to  themselves 
the  exclusive  right  of  erecting  banks.  That  they  have  exer- 
cised this  right  is  not  to  be  denied,  but  that  they  have  the 
right  at  all  is  very  questionable.  Permit  me,  sir,  to  examine 
this  exclusive  right.  In  the  tenth  section  of'  the  first  article 
of  the  Constitution  it  is  declared  that  no  State  shall  coin 
money,  emit  bills  of  credit,  or  make  anything  but  gold  or  sil- 
ver legal  tender  for  debt.  What,  sir,  is  a  bill  of  credit  ?  Will 
it  be  contended  that  a  bank  bill  is  not  a  bill  of  credit  ?  It  is 
emphatically  a  bill  of  credit.  It  may  be  said  that  the  States, 
by  the  creation  of  banks  with  authority  to  issue  bills  of  credit, 
do  not  violate  the  Constitution,  because  they  do  not  emit  the 
bills  themselves.  But,  sir,  according  to  the  maxims  of  law, 
what  they  do  by  another  they  do  themselves.  The  banks  de- 
rive their  authority  from  the  States.  The  States  have  no  such 
authority  to  delegate.  How,  then,  can  the  States  charter  banks  ? 

"  But,  not  content  with  the  exercise  of  an  usurped  authority, 
the  great  States  are  by  usurpation  attempting  to  legislate  for 
Congress.  Was  it  not  said,  when  three  great  States  instructed 
their  representatives  to  vote  against  the  Bank,  that  after  such 
an  expression  of  opinion  Congress  ought  not  to  think  of  act- 
ing ?  And  what,  sir,  induces  these  States  to  wish  to  put  down 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States  ?  Avarice.  They  have  erected 
banks  in  which  they  hold  stock,  and  now  seek  to  compel  the 
United  States  to  use  these  banks  as  places  of  deposit  for  public 
money." 

Two  of  the  States  thus  charged  with  usurpation  of  power, 
with  avarice,  with  a  longing  to  see  their  banks  in  possession 
of  the  public  money,  were  Pennsylvania  and  Yirginia.  The 


388  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

senators  from  each  now  vigorously  repelled  the  charges  and 
read  to  the  Senate  the  instructions  they  had  received.  Those 
from  Virginia  declared  the  original  charter  to  have  been  an 
unconstitutional  act,  denied  that  Congress  had  power  to  renew 
it,  and  asserted  that  an  attempt  to  renew  it  would  be  a  danger- 
ous encroachment  on  the  sovereignty  of  the  States.*  Those 
from  Pennsylvania  are  of  interest,  as  that  great  Common- 
wealth for  the  second  time  affirmed,  nay,  used  the  very  lan- 
guage of  the  Kentucky  resolution  of  1798. f  The  debate  now 
became  general,  and  senator  after  senator  set  upon  Crawford 
to  tear  his  constitutional  argument  to  pieces.  All  were  able 
men.  But  the  arguments  of  Henry  Clay  have  for  us  an  espe- 
cial interest.  He  laughed  at  the  idea  of  the  Bank  giving  any 
real  aid  in  the  collection  of  taxes.  He  scoffed  at  those  who 
believed  it  to  be  useful  as  a  depository  for  public  funds.  lie 
declared  that  the  operations  of  the  Treasury  could  be  carried 
on  just  as  well  without  the  Bank  as  with  it.  He  spoke  at  great 
length  on  the  constitutionality  of  recharter. 

"What,"  said  he,  "is  the  nature  of  this  Government?  It 
is  emphatically  federal,  vested  with  an  aggregate  of  specified 
powers  for  general  purposes,  conceded  by  existing  sovereign- 
ties, who  have  themselves  retained  what  is  not  so  conceded. 
It  is  said  that  there  are  cases  in  which  it  must  act  on  implied 
powers.  True.  But  the  implication  must  be  necessary,  must 

*  Passed  by  the  General  Assembly,  January  22,  1811.  Annals  of  Congress 
1810-'!  1,  p.  201. 

f  The  language  of  the  first  paragraph  is :  "  The  people  of  the  United  States, 
by  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  established  a  General  Government 
for  special  purposes,  reserving  to  themselves  respectively  the  rights  and  authori- 
ties not  delegated  in  that  instrument.  To  the  compact  thereby  created  each  State 
acceded  in  its  character  as  a  State  and  as  a  party ;  the  United  States  forming,  as 
to  it,  the  other  party.  The  act  of  union,  thus  entered  into,  being  to  all  intents 
and  purposes  a  treaty  between  sovereign  States.  The  General  Government,  by  this 
treaty,  was  not  constituted  the  exclusive  or  final  judge  of  the  powers  it  was  to 
exercise ;  for  if  it  were  so  to  judge,  then  its  judgment,  and  not  the  Constitution, 
would  be  the  measure  of  its  authority. 

"  Should  the  General  Government,  in  any  of  its  departments,  violate  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Constitution,  it  rests  with  the  States  and  with  the  people  to  apply 
suitable  remedies."  The  resolutions  then  go  on  to  assert  that  Congress  cannot 
create  a  corporation  within  the  limits  of  a  State  without  its  consent. — Journal  of 
the  21st  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania,  Janu- 
ary 11,  1811.' 


1811.  CLAY  ATTACKS  THE  BANK.  389 

obviously  flow  from  the  enumerated  power  with  which  it  is 
joined.  The  power  to  charter  corporations  is  not  specified  in 
the  grant,  and,  I  contend,  is  of  a  nature  not  transferable.  It 
is  one  of  the  highest  attributes  of  sovereignty.  To  deduce  it 
from  power  to  levy  and  collect  taxes  is  to  lay  prostrate  all  re- 
lation between  principle  and  incident.  As  well  might  it  be 
said  that  the  great  luminary  of  day  is  an  accessory,  a  satellite 
to  the  humblest  star  that  twinkles  forth  its  feeble  light  in  the 
firmament  of  heaven. 

"And  what  is  the  character  of  the  corporation  this  bill  is 
to  set  up  ?  It  is  a  splendid  association  of  favored  individuals 
taken  from  the  mass  of  society  and  invested  with  exemptions 
and  surrounded  with  immunities  and  privileges.  ]STow,  I  con- 
tend that  the  States  have  each  power  to  regulate  contracts 
and  to  declare  who  shall  and  who  shall  not  make  them.  If, 
then,  Congress  may  violate  State  rights  and  confer  on  a  bank 
power  to  make  contracts,  may  it  not  go  further  and,  in  con- 
travention of  State  rights,  give  power  to  make  contracts  to 
slaves,  infants,  and  femes  convert  9  I  contend  that  the  States 
have  exclusive  power  to  provide  as  to  the  extent  of  responsi- 
bility of  debtors  and  their  creditors.  But  if  Congress  may 
say  that  men,  when  associated,  shall  be  responsible  for  their 
debts  only  in  a  limited  degree,  why  may  it  not  extend  this 
privilege  to  men  when  they  are  not  associated  ?  Where  is  the 
limitation  on  this  power  to  set  up  corporations  ?  You  estab- 
lish one  in  the  heart  of  a  State  with  money  for  capital.  May 
you  not  set  up  others,  with  land,  with  slaves,  with  personal 
estate  as  capital,  and  so  absorb  all  the  property  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  State  ?  The  Bank  contends  that  no  State 
can  tax  it.  If  this  pretension  be  well  founded,  it  is  within 
the  power  of  Congress,  by  chartering  corporations,  to  dry  up 
the  whole  source  of  State  revenue."  He  ended  with  a  fine 
burst  of  rhetoric,  in  which  he  broke  down  the  argument  that  it 
was  a  good  thing  to  have  Englishmen  own  seven  tenths  of  the 
stock  of  the  Bank,  as  it  gave  us  influential  friends  in  London. 

The  debating  now  ran  on  for  five  days.  Crawford  then 
closed  it  in  a  speech  in  which  he  answered  Clay,  and,  judged 
by  the  position  of  Clay  five  years  later,  answered  him  com- 
pletely. Indeed,  the  palm  belongs  to  Crawford.  Of  all  the 


390  DRIFTING  INTO   WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

senators  who  spoke  in  that  debate,  he  alone  displayed  a  clear 
perception  of  the  constitutional,  the  financial,  the  economic 
interests  at  stake.  When  he  had  finished,  the  vote  was  taken 
on  the  question  of  striking  out  the  first  section  of  the  bill.  As 
this  section  provided  for  continuing  the  charter  for  twenty 
years,  the  fate  of  it  would  determine  the  fate  of  the  bill. 
Every  member  of  the  Senate  was  in  his  seat,  and  when  the 
last  name  on  the  roll  was  called,  seventeen  were  found  to  have 
answered  Yea  and  seventeen  Nay.  It  then  became  the  duty  of 
the  Vice-President  to  give  the  casting  vote,  which  he  did  in 
favor  of  the  yeas.*  As  the  House,  about  a  month  before,  re- 
jected a  similar  bill  by  a  vote  almost  as  close,  f  all  hope  of  a 
recharter  was  abandoned. ;(:  One  of  the  seventeen  who  voted 
for  a  renewal  of  the  charter  was  Richard  Brent,  of  Virginia. 
The  Legislature  of  his  State  had  expressly  enjoined  him  to 
vote  No.  But  he  saw  fit  to  disobey,  and  the  next  Legislature 
condemned  his  conduct  heartily.  No  man,  the  report  ex- 
plained, could  be  so  exalted  as  to  excite  the  resentment  of  the 
Assembly  of  Virginia.  That  would  be  unworthy  of  its  dignity 
and  honorable  to  the  object  of  its  wrath.  Underlying  the 
behavior  of  the  senator,  however,  was  a  great  principle  of 
republican  government  concerning  which  it  was  high  time 
that  the  sentiments  of  Virginia  should  be  known.  Briefly 
stated,  these  sentiments  were  that  the  Legislature  had  an  un- 
doubted right  to  instruct  senators  on  all  matters  constitu- 
tional or  political,  and  that  henceforth  no  man  ought  to  accept 
the  appointment  of  senator  who  did  not  hold  himself  bound 
to  obey  such  instructions.* 

*  February  20,  1811.  f  January  25,  1811.     Yeas,  65  ;  nays,  64. 

J  After  the  refusal  to  renew  its  charter  the  Bank  applied  for  an  extension  of 
time,  in  order  to  wind  up  its  affairs.  This  also  was  refused.  Trustees  were  then 
appointed,  and  June  1, 1812,  a  dividend  of  70  per  cent,  was  paid  ;  October  1, 1812, 
18  per  cent,  more  was  distributed;  on  April  1,  1813,  7  per  cent.,  and  5  per  cent, 
on  April  1,  1816,  and  December  1,  1817.  Regarding  the  Trust,  see  Proceedings 
of  the  Stockholders  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  Preparatory  to  the  Creation 
of  a  Trust  for  closing  out  the  Concerns  of  that  Institution,  Philadelphia,  1811. 

*  The  report  made  to  the  Assembly  on  that  occasion  is  the  most  careful  and 
elaborate  discussion  of  the  right  to  instruct  yet  made  to  any  legislative  body. 
It  fills  ten  pages  of  the  printed  Laws  of  Virginia,  and  deserves  to  be  read  by 
every  student  of  our  history. 


1811.  THE  SECOND  OF  FEBRUARY.  391 

Having  thus,  on  the  eve  of  war,  destroyed  the  Bank,  con- 
tracted the  currency  by  five  millions  and  thirty-seven  thousand 
dollars,  sent  seven  millions  of  specie  abroad,  and  put  up  the 
price  of  exchange  between  every  city  and  town  in  the  country, 
Congress  now  went  on  to  cut  down  the  revenue  by  means  of 
a  new  restriction  on  commerce. 

The  proclamation  of  the  President  had  fixed  the  second  of 
February  as  the  day  on  which  all  intercourse  should  cease  with 
Great  Britain  unless  she  should  before  that  date  revoke  her 
orders  in  council.  As  the  time  drew  nearer  and  nearer  and 
no  word  of  their  recall  came  over  the  ocean,  it  began  to  be 
said  openly  that  the  country  had  now  drifted  to  the  very 
brink  of  war.  That  Madison  had  been  too  hasty;  that  his 
proclamation  did  not  state  facts;  that  Napoleon  had  not 
revoked  the  decrees  of  Berlin  and  Milan ;  and  that  England 
would  not  recall  her  orders,  was  apparent  to  every  man  who 
chose  to  take  a  cool  and  impartial  view  of  our  foreign  rela- 
tions. What,  it  was  asked  on  every  hand,  shall  we  do  ?  Shall 
the  Non-intercourse  Act  be  suffered  to  go  into  force  against 
Great  Britain?  If  so,  will  she  not  at  once  retaliate,  nay, 
strike  back  with  a  declaration  of  war  ?  The  House  Committee 
on  Foreign  Affairs  took  the  ground  that  the  President  should 
be  supported,  waited  till  they  could  wait  no  longer,  and  then 
increased  the  embarrasment  by  presenting  a  bill.  It  was  to 
supplement  the  law  of  May  first,  1810,  which  revived  nine 
sections  of  the  act  of  March,  1809.  From  and  after  February 
second  not  a  ship,  not  a  vessel  sailing  under  the  flag  of  Eng- 
land and  owned,  wholly  or  in  part,  by  a  subject  of  King 
George,  was  to  enter  the  waters  of  the  United  States.  On  and 
after  that  day  the  custom-houses  were  to  be  shut  to  English 
goods,  wares,  and  merchandise  coming  from  any  port  or  place 
in  the  possession  of  Great  Britain.  On  and  after  that  day  it 
became  unlawful  to  bring  goods  of  English  make  from  foreign 
ports,  and  goods  of  foreign  make  from  English  ports,  to  any 
place  in  the  United  States.  The  purpose  of  the  bill,  in  short, 
was  to  establish  total  non-importation  with  England  till  such 
time  as  the  President  should  by  proclamation  declare  that  the 
orders  in  council  had  been  recalled. 

The  House,  however,  was  still  for  delay.     The  next  ship 


392  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

that  came  in,  the  next  packet  of  letters  to  the  British  Minis- 
ter, the  next  London  newspaper,  might  bring  the  news  so 
long  desired.  Having  heard  the  bill  read  twice,  the  House 
therefore  sent  it  to  the  Committee  of  the  Whole,  and  for 
nearly  three  weeks  it  lay  on  the  Speaker's  table.  But  delay 
was  useless.  The  packets  when  they  arrived  brought  either 
no  intelligence  or  intelligence  of  a  most  disheartening  sort. 
November  first,  1810,  was  the  date  on  which,  had  Napoleon 
been  an  honest  man,  a  decree  should  have  issued  revoking 
those  of  Berjin  and  Milan.  But  the  letters  and  newspapers 
which  reached  this  country  in  December  made  no  mention  of 
any  such  decree.  Had  Napoleon  been  a  prudent  man  he 
would  at  least  have  refrained  after  November  first  from  en- 
forcing those  decrees.  But  letters  written  at  Bordeaux  in  the 
middle  of  December  announced  that  two  American  ships  had 
been  seized  at  that  port  for  coming  in  without  French  licenses. 
Madison  stated  this  fact  to  Congress  on  the  last  day  of  Janu- 
ary.* Not  a  man  who  heard  the  message  read  ought  one 
moment  longer  to  have  doubted  the  utter  faithlessness  of 
France.  The  majority  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Rela- 
tions, to  do  them  justice,  did  not  doubt  it,  and  instructed  their 
chairman  to  move  the  recommitment  of  their  bill.  For  nearly 
three  weeks  past  it  had  been  lying  neglected  on  the  Speaker's 
table.  But  on  the  second  of  February  the  chairman,  remind- 
ing the  House  of  the  day  and  the  event,  made  the  motion  for 
recommitment.  The  conduct  of  France  was  such  that  he  could 
find  no  excuse  for  non-intercourse  with  England.  It  would 
be  better  to  suspend  the  old  law  and  provide  for  the  relief  of 
our  citizens  than  to  pass  a  new  one. 

As  luck  would  have  it,  John  Randolph  was  in  the  House, 
and,  always  ready  to  embarrass  Madison,  he  moved,  as  an 
amendment,  that  the  committee  be  instructed  to  bring  in  a  bill 
repealing  the  act  of  May  first,  1810.  A  long  debate  fol- 
lowed. What,  asked  the  men  who  opposed  the  motion,  are 
we  asked  to  do  ?  We  are  asked  to  repeal  the  law  of  May  first 
last.  What  does  this  law  do  ?  It  provides,  in  the  first  place, 
for  the  exclusion  from  our  ports  of  the  armed  ships  of  for- 

*  American  State  Papers,  Foreign  Affairs,  vol.  iii,  p.  390. 


1811.  THE  SECOND  OF  FEBRUARY.  393 

eign  nations,  and,  in  the  second  place,  it  makes  to  both  France 
and  England  an  offer  embracing  a  promise.  By  it  we  said  to 
Great  Britain,  Recall  your  orders  in  council,  and  we  shut  every 
article  of  French  manufacture  from  our  markets.  By  it  we 
said  to  France,  Recall  your  decrees,  and  we  will  exclude  every 
sort  of  British  merchandise  from  our  ports.  By  it  we  said  to 
both  England  and  France,  If  either  of  you  do  not  revoke  your 
restrictions  we  will,  against  the  one  neglecting  so  to  do,  en- 
force nine  sections  of  the  Non-intercourse  Act  of  March,  1809. 
England  neglected  the  offer.  France  accepted  it,  and  sent 
us  word  that,  after  November  first,  the  decrees  of  Berlin  and 
Milan  would  cease  to  have  effect.  This  fact  the  President 
made  known  to  the  world,  and  gave  England  three  months' 
grace.  At  midnight  of  this  day  the  time  of  grace  expires. 
What,  then,  is  the  duty  of  this  Government  ?  Why,  undoubt- 
edly, to  fulfil  with  good  faith  the  promise  made  to  France. 
On  this  day  the  law  of  May  last,  the  law  we  are  asked  to 
repeal,  becomes  a  national  compact  between  France  and  the 
United  States.  That  compact  may  now  seem  impolitic,  un- 
timely, harmful ;  but  it  is  a  compact  solemnly  and  deliberately 
made,  and  must  be  carried  out. 

The  answer  made  to  this  argument  was  a  flat  denial  that  a 
compact  existed.  We  did,  indeed,  it  was  said,  promise  to  do 
certain  things.  But  our  promise  was  conditional.  It  was  not 
to  be  binding  unless  France,  on  the  first  of  November,  repealed 
her  decrees.  Has  she  repealed  them?  Most  certainly  not. 
Is  there  not  now  lying  on  yonder  table  a  letter  which  tells  us 
that,  about  December  first,  the  brig  New  Orleans  Packet  from 
New  York  and  the  schooner  Friendship  of  Baltimore  were 
seized  by  the  collector  of  customs  at  Bordeaux  ?  The  Berlin 
and  Milan  decrees  are  not  repealed.  The  condition  on  which 
our  promise  was  to  go  into  effect  does  not  exist.  Our  faith  is 
not  pledged  to  execute  any  compact. 

After  all  who  wished  to  speak  had  been  heard,  the  Speaker 
put  the  question,  and  the  Clerk  announced  that  the  nays  had 
it  by  a  vote  of  sixty-seven  to  forty-five.  The  bill  was  then  re- 
committed by  an  almost  unanimous  vote.*  Next  day  a  new 

*  Yeas,  82 ,  nays,  9. 


394  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

bill  was  reported,  providing  that  no  vessels,  owned  wholly  by 
a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  which  left  a  British  port  prior 
to  February  second,  1811,  and  no  goods  coming  in  such  vessels 
and  owned  wholly  by  citizens  of  the  United  States,  should  be 
seized  under  the  sections  of  the  Non-importation  Act  revived 
by  the  President's  proclamation.  Twice  the  House  went  into 
a  Committee  of  the  Whole  to  consider  it.*  But  the  report 
was  now  spread  about  that  Serurier,  the  new  French  Minister, 
would  soon  arrive,  and  the  House,  only  too  glad  to  get  rid  of  a 
matter  concerning  which  they  did  not  know  what  to  do,  re- 
fused the  committee  leave  to  sit  again,  and  waited  patiently 
for  the  Minister  to  come.  He  came  a  few  days  later,  and  on 
the  morning  of  February  seventeenth  had  his  first  interview 
with  the  Secretary  of  State.  That  afternoon  the  Cabinet  met, 
in  high  hopes,  to  hear  what  Smith  had  to  report.  They  might 
as  well,  however,  have  been  spared  the  trouble,  for  the  Secre- 
tary could  report  nothing  but  failure.  Not  one  particle  of 
evidence  did  Serurier  furnish  that  the  decrees  were  repealed. 

Madison  was  determined  to  believe  that  they  were,  and,  to 
the  end  that  this  belief  might  be  forced  on  Congress,  he  gath- 
ered up  and  sent  to  the  House  f  two  French  documents  £  which 
had  recently  come  to  hand.  One  was  a  letter  from  the  Minis- 
ter of  Finance  to  the  Director  General  of  Customs,  instruct- 
ing him  to  no  longer  enforce  against  American  ships  the  de- 
crees of  Berlin  and  Milan.  The  other  was  a  letter  from  the 
Minister  of  Justice  to  the  President  of  the  Council  of  Prizes, 
and  informed  him  that  in  future  American  vessels  should  not 
be  judged  under  the  decrees  of  Berlin  and  Milan,  but  should 
be  sequestered  till  February  second,  1811.  If  the  United 
States  then  fulfilled  her  engagement  with  France,  the  seques- 
tered vessels  should  be  set  free. 

To  present  such  documents  as  conclusive  evidence  that  the 
decrees  had  been  repealed  was  bold.  But  Madison  well  knew 
that  his  party  would  support  him,  and  his  party,  in  order  to 
support  him,  completely  revolutionized  their  methods  of  busi- 

*  February  6th  and  9th. 
f  February  19th. 

J  Each  was   dated   December  25,    1810.     American  State  Papers,   Foreign 
Affairs,  vol.  iii,  p.  303. 


1811.  STKUGGLE  WITH  THE  MINORITY.  395 

ness.  The  first  step  toward  this  revolution  was  taken  *  when 
the  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations  moved  to 
amend  his  bill  by  adding  two  more  sections,  reviving  the  Non- 
intercourse  Act  of  1809.  The  next  step  was  taken  when  the 
Committee  of  the  Whole  sent  the  amendments  to  the  House 
and  the  House  began  debating  them.  It  was  now  the  twenty- 
sixth  of  February.  Before  midnight  on  the  third  of  March 
Congress  must  adjourn.  Time  being  short,  the  minority 
attempted  by  every  means  in  their  power  to  hinder,  to  delay, 
to  prevent  a  vote.  One  who  was  present  during  that  exciting 
debate  declares  that  on  the  first  day  the  House  sat  eighteen 
hours.  Every  expedient  to  delay  a  vote  was  resorted  to  by 
the  minority.  All  day  long,  from  the  beginning  of  the  ses- 
sion in  the  morning  till  late  in  the  evening,  speech  after  speech 
was  made  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  consume  time.  At 
half  past  ten  at  night  a  motion  to  adjourn  was  lost,  and 
the  tactics  of  the  minority  immediately  took  a  new  form. 
No  sooner  would  one  of  their  party  obtain  the  floor  and  be 
well  on  in  a  long  and  tiresome  speech  than  a  number  of  them 
would  rise,  quit  the  chamber  in  a  body,  and  leave  the  House 
without  a  quorum.  The  speaker  would  then  be  interrupted 
by  a  motion  to  adjourn.  The  majority  would  vote  No,  the 
motion  would  be  lost,  and  the  speaker  go  on  till  he  was 
tired.  Some  other  member  of  his  party  would  then  follow 
him,  for  the  majority  were  determined  to  keep  silence  and 
give  the  minority  no  aid  by  taking  part  in  the  debate  and  so 
consuming  time.  These  scenes  were  repeated  at  a  quarter 
past  eleven,  at  twelve,  and  at  a  quarter  to  one  o'clock.  A 
motion  was  then  argued  for  a  compulsory  process  to  compel 
members  to  attend.  The  argument  on  the  one  hand  was 
that  it  was  cruel  to  drag  members  from  their  beds  at  such 
a  time  of  night,  at  such  a  season  of  the  year,  on  business 
which  ought  not  to  be  hastily  decided.  The  argument  on  the 
other  hand  was  the  urgency  of  the  business  and  the  evident 
intention  of  the  minority  to  delay  and  defeat  the  bill  by  de- 
liberately destroying  the  quorum.  The  motion  was  lost.  So 
also  were  others  to  adjourn  made  at  half  past  one  and  at  two, 

*  February  21st. 


396  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  OHAP.  xx. 

when  the  motion  to  compel  the  attendance  of  members  was 
renewed.  A  quorum  being  present,  it  was  carried,  and  at 
twenty  minutes  past  two  the  door-keeper  was  despatched  in 
search  of  the  absentees.  While  the  door-keeper  was  gone 
other  members  of  the  minority  left,  so  that  it  was  ten  minutes 
past  three  when  a  quorum  was  again  secured.  Thereupon  one 
of  the  minority  immediately  slipped  out,  and  at  half  past  three 
a  call  of  the  House  showed  seventy-one  members  present. 
This  was  one  less  than  a  quorum.  Motions  for  a  compulsory 
process  were  now  again  made.  But  the  Speaker  decided  that 
no  such  process  could  be  issued  unless  a  quorum  were  present, 
and  the  majority,  convinced  that  a  quorum  could  not  be  had, 
gave  way  and  adjourned. 

Next  morning  at  half  past  ten  the  session  was  resumed  and 
another  day  wasted.  Again  the  majority  kept  silence.  Again 
the  minority  consumed  the  time  with  useless  speeches.  About 
candle-light  the  House  adjourned  till  six  o'clock.  Promptly 
at  that  hour  the  Speaker  took  the  chair,  and  John  Randolph 
opened  an  all-night  session  with  a  motion  to  postpone  further 
consideration  of  the  bill  for  two  days.  This  being  voted 
down,  he  moved  to  postpone  for  one  day.  What  followed  has 
been  termed  a  debate.  It  was  in  truth  an  uncontrollable  out- 
burst of  wrath  long  pent  up.  John  W.  Eppes,  chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations  and  a  member  from  Vir- 
ginia, accused  Randolph  of  seeking  to  delay  and  defeat  the 
bill.  Randolph,  excited  by  liquor,  gave  Eppes  the  lie  direct, 
and  the  whole  House  was  in  a  furor.  The  Speaker  rapping 
with  his  gavel  on  the  desk,  the  members  springing  to  their 
feet  and  shouting  "  Order,"  "  Order,"  from  every  part  of  the 
chamber,  the  angry  tones  and  menacing  gestures  of  the  two 
Virginians,  made  a  scene  such  as  the  House  had  rarely  wit- 
nessed. When  order  was  at  length  restored,  Eppes  sat  down 
and  wrote  a  challenge.  Randolph  instantly  accepted  it,  and 
left  the  room  to  make  arrangements  with  his  second. 

Six  hours  were  now  wasted  in  making  long  speeches,  in 
offering  innumerable  amendments,  motions  to  adjourn,  and  in 
taking  the  yeas  and  nays  six  times.  About  half  past  two  in 
the  morning,  section  two  of  the  bill  being  under  debate,  a 
member  called  for  the  reading  of  so  much  of  the  Non-inter- 


1811.  RULE  OF  THE  PREVIOUS  QUESTION.  397 

course  Act  of  1809  as  section  two  would  revive.  The  Speaker 
having  stated  the  question,  Barent  Gardenier,  of  New  York, 
began  to  discuss  it.  As  his  speech  gave  promise  of  great 
length,  William  Gholson,  of  Virginia,  cut  him  short  bj  calling 
for  the  previous  question  on  the  motion  for  reading  the  sec- 
tions. The  previous  question  was  put  and  carried  in  the 
affirmative,  and  Gardenier  had  begun  to  debate  the  main  ques- 
tion, on  reading  the  sections,  when  Gholson  again  stopped 
him,  called  him  to  order,  and  claimed  that,  the  House  having 
decided  the  previous  question  in  the  affirmative,  debate  was 
not  allowable.  The  Speaker  ruled  that  it  was.*  Gholson  ap- 
pealed, and  the  House  reversed  the  ruling  of  the  chair.  This 
ended  the  struggle.  "With  their  new  implement  of  parlia- 
mentary fence  the  majority  struck  down  and  silenced  the  mi- 
nority, and  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning  passed  the  bill. 
Both  the  Senate  and  the  President  heartily  approved,  and, 
March  second,  it  became  law. 

Some  months  later,  when  the  twelfth  Congress  was  con- 
sidering the  report  of  its  Committee  on  Standing  Rules  and 
Orders  of  Proceeding,  the  expediency  of  this  rule  was  ques- 
tioned. An  amendment  was  then  offered  that  when  the 
previous  question  had  been  decided  in  the  affirmative,  and 
the  main  question  had  been  put,  every  member  who  had  not 
already  spoken  should  have  leave  to  speak  once.  This  is  not 
a  mere  contest,  said  the  supporters  of  the  amendment,  between 
the  majority  and  the  minority  for  power.  It  is  a  contest  for 
the  liberty  of  speech.  Freedom  of  speech  and  freedom  of 
debate  are  sacred  to  the  Constitution,  and  to  deny  the  privilege 
of  speaking  at  all  is  to  overthrow  the  first  principles  of  our 
Government.  What  are  we  sent  here  for  but  to  deliberate,  to 
speak,  to  debate  ?  Deliberation  is  the  very  life-blood  of  a  legis- 
lative body.  This  right  does  not  belong  to  the  body,  nor  to  any 

*  The  Speaker  decided  that,  according  to  the  late  practice  of  the  House,  it 
was  in  order  to  debate  the  main  question  after  the  previous  question  had  been 
taken.  He  said  that  this  practice  had  been  established  by  the  House  by  a  decis- 
ion two  years  ago,  in  opposition  to  an  opinion  which  he  himself  had  always  en- 
tertained, and  had  then  declared.  His  decision  on  that  occasion  was  reversed, 
and  he  felt  himself  bound  by  that  expression  of  the  sense  of  the  House." — Annals 
of  Congress,  1810-'ll,  p.  1092. 


398  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  OHAP.  xx 

portion  of  the  body,  but  to  each  individual  forming  the  body. 
The  body  has  power  to  control  and  regulate  its  exercise,  but 
not  the  power  to  take  away  that  right  altogether  by  the  opera- 
tion of  a  general  rule.  An  individual,  therefore,  may  be  set 
down  for  abusing  the  right  of  debate.  But  whenever  a  legis- 
lature assumes  to  itself  the  power  of  stopping  all  debate  at 
any  stage  of  deliberation,  it  assumes  a  power  wholly  inconsist- 
ent with  freedom  of  speech,  and  ruinous  to  a  great  principle 
of  civil  liberty.  We  are  here  not  as  men,  but  as  representa- 
tives. It  is  not  in  our  majesty,  but  in  the  majesty  of  our 
constituents  that  we  come,  and  we  claim  the  right  to  be  heard 
at  all  times,  not  because  it  is  our  right,  but  because  it  is  the 
absolute  and  inherent  right  of  the  people  who  send  us.  The 
majority  answered  that  the  Constitution  gave  the  House 
power  "  to  determine  the  rules  of  its  proceedings,"  and  by  a 
vote  of  seventy-six  to  thirty-six  repealed  the  amendment. 

Thus  was  firmly  established  in  congressional  procedure 
the  rule  of  the  previous  question ;  the  rule  which  centralizes 
power  in  the  hands  of  the  majority,  which  cuts  off  debate, 
which  stifles  the  voice  of  the  minority  and  deprives  it  of  the 
greatest  of  the  few  privileges  which  in  our  system  of  govern- 
ment it  properly  possesses.  It  is,  indeed,  a  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  government  by  the  people  that  the  majority  shall  rule. 
But  it  is  likewise  a  fundamental  principle  that  the  majority 
shall  be  fair  and  just,  that  it  shall  not  be  tyrannical,  that  it 
shall  not  do  acts  merely  because  it  has  the  power.  Yet  it  is 
precisely  such  arbitrary  acts  that  the  rule  of  the  previous  ques- 
tion enables  the  majority  to  do.  On  the  February  day  when 
it  was  adopted  congressional  government  suffered  a  great  revo- 
lution. Since  that  day  Congress  has  steadily  become  less  and 
less  of  a  deliberative  body  and  more  and  more  a  body  whose 
duty  is  to  register  the  decrees  of  the  majority. 

The  bill,  passed  in  this  arbitrary  way,  provided  that  Ameri- 
can ships  and  cargoes  leaving  British  ports  prior  to  February 
second  should  not  be  confiscated ;  that  when  the  President  pro- 
claimed the  orders  in  council  revoked,  the  proclamation  should 
be  evidence  of  the  revocation,  and  no  court  should  admit  any 
other ;  and  that,  until  such  a  proclamation  issued,  nine  sections 
of  the  Non-intercourse  Act  of  1809  should  be  in  force.  Noth- 


1811.  WOEK  OF  THE  ELEVENTH  CONGKESS.  399 

ing  in  these  sections  forbade  American  goods  going  to  Eng- 
land. It  was  on  British  wares  and  merchandise  that  the  re- 
striction was  laid,  and,  as  they  could  no  longer  be  imported, 
many  millions  of  annual  revenue  were  lost  to  the  Treasury. 
The  deficit  must  be  made  up.  But  Congress  would  not  increase 
taxation.  In  the  batch  of  bills,  therefore,  which  Madison 
signed  on  March  second,  was  one  authorizing  him  to  borrow 
five  millions  of  dollars.  At  midnight,  on  Sunday,  the  third 
of  March,  the  eleventh  Congress  ended  its  sitting. 

The  fruit  of  that  stormy  session  was  thirty-seven  public 
acts.  Compared  with  the  work  now  done  by  a  Congress,  this 
showing  seems  small  indeed,  for  it  is  now  no  uncommon 
occurrence  for  either  House  to  have  on  its  calendar  ten  thou- 
sand bills,  and  for  a  Congress  to  put  on  the  statute  book  four 
hundred  public  acts.  Yet  the  eleventh  Congress  is  memora- 
ble in  our  history  as  that  which  passed  Macon's  Bill  No.  2, 
which  destroyed  the  Bank,  which  revived  non-importation 
with  England,  which  established  the  rule  of  the  previous 
question,  and  reduced  the  Government  to  a  state  of  imbe- 
cility to  which  it  did  not  again  descend  for  fifty  years.  For 
this  state  of  affairs  Madison  was  chiefly  responsible.  At  a 
time  when  his  councils  should  have  been  all  harmony,  when 
his  measures  should  have  been  all  vigor,  when  his  position  on 
matters  both  foreign  and  domestic  should  have  been  carefully 
chosen  and  firmly  held,  all  was  weakness,  factiousness,  uncer- 
tainty, and  doubt.  A  faction,  a  cabal,  small  in  numbers,  small 
in  ability,  without  a  leader,  and  without  any  concerted  plan, 
completely  ruled  him.  He  was,  as  Eandolph  truly  said, "  Presi- 
dent de  jure."  *  It  was  William  Duane  and  Michael  Leib, 
the  brothers  Eobert  Smith  and  Samuel  Smith,  and  William 
Giles  that  determined  who  should  sit  in  the  Cabinet,  who 
should  sit  on  the  Supreme  bench,  who  should  be  ministers  at 
foreign  courts,  what  administation  measures  should  be  passed 
and  what  should  be  defeated.  Madison  was  now  at  the  mid- 
dle of  the  term  for  which  he  had  been  elected,  yet  he  was  as 
docile,  as  submissive  to  the  dictates  of  the  cabal,  as  indifferent 
to  the  ruin  toward  which  they  were  driving  him,  as  he  could 

*  Life  of  Gallatiii.     Henry  Adams,  p.  430. 


400  DRIFTING  INTO   WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

have  been  had  he  meant  to  go  on  in  the  same  course  for  the 
two  years  of  rule  which  still  remained  to  him.  From  such  a 
fate  he  was  saved  by  Gallatin,  the  only  able  man,  the  only  in- 
dispensable man  in  the  Cabinet.  During  two  years  the  Secre- 
tary had  watched  with  patience  the  feebleness,  the  perplexity, 
the  utter  inability  to  decide  and  act  which  marked  the  conduct 
of  Congress  and  for  which  the  cabal  was  largely  to  blame. 
But  with  the  ending  of  the  eleventh  Congress  his  patience 
gave  way  and  he  tendered  his  resignation.* 

Brought  to  a  pass  where  he  must  do  something,  Madison 
now  acted  promptly  and  wisely.  He  determined  to  retain  his 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  refused  to  accept  the  resigna- 
tion. He  determined  to  dismiss  his  Secretary  of  State,  and 
asked  Gallatin  to  find  out  if  James  Monroe  would  take  the 
vacant  place.  Gallatin  applied  to  Eichard  Brent,  a  senator 
from  Virginia.  Brent  wrote  to  Monroe  ;  f  Monroe  consulted 
his  friends,  and  was  by  them  advised  to  accept.;};  He  had  much 
reason  to  hesitate  and  seek  advice,  for  he  had,  but  a  few 
weeks  before,  condemned  the  administration  and  declared  he 
feared  a  crisis,  and  had  described  the  policy  of  Madison  as  one 
of  "  improvident  and  injudicious  measures."  But  his  friends 
assured  him  that  his  duty  was  to  accept.  The  offer  of  Madi- 
son was  a  sure  sign  of  a  wish  to  get  rid  of  the  cabal,  and  if 
he  did  not  profit  by  the  opportunity,  some  one  else,  perhaps 
John  Armstrong,  would.  In  a  little  while,  therefore,  Brent 
assured  Gallatin  that  Monroe  was  willing  to  become  Secre 
tary  of  State. 

Thereupon  Madison  sent  for  Smith  and  began  the  un- 
pleasant task  of  asking  him  to  resign.  Madison  told  him 
plainly  that  he  was  not  able  to  perform  the  duties  of  his  high 
office,  that  he  was  not  punctual,  that  he  was  not  systematic, 
that  out  of  doors  he  opposed  and  counteracted  measures  which 
he  had  seemingly  approved  in  the  Cabinet,  that  it  was  noto- 
rious that  the  administration  of  the  Executive  Department  la- 
bored under  a  want  of  harmony  and  unity  which  was  charge- 

*  Life  of  Albert  Gallatin.     Henry  Adams,  p.  434. 

f  Richard  Brent  to  James  Monroe,  March  7, 1811.     Monroe  Manuscript,  State 
Department,  Washington. 

$  John  Taylor  to  James  Monroe,  March  24,  1811. 


1811.  MONROE  SECRETARY  OF  STATE. 

able  solely  on  him,  requested  him  to  retire,  and  offered  to 
appoint  him  Minister  to  Russia.  John  Quincy  Adams  then 
held  that  post.  But  he  had  just  been  made  a  justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  and  it  was  supposed  he 
would  soon  come  home  to  take  his  seat  on  the  bench.  In  a  few 
days,  however,  Smith  returned,  declined  the  offer,  and  retired 
to  Baltimore.  There  in  the  heat  of  passion  he  committed  the 
folly  of  publicly  displaying  his  woes  in  a  long  address  to  the 
people  of  the  United  States,  who  cared  nothing  for  him,  his 
grievances,  or  his  dismissal.  By  Madison  the  strictures  and 
charges  of  French  influence  made  by  Smith  were  keenly  felt. 
He  could  not  answer  them  himself.  Joel  Barlow  was  there- 
fore employed  to  do  so  for  him,  and  was  in  turn  answered  by 
Smith. 

The  Department  of  State  meantime  had  passed  into  the 
care  of  Monroe.  He  took  charge  on  the  first  of  April.  Had 
he  called  for  the  despatches  written  and  received  since  the 
opening  of  the  year,  that  he  might  the  better  understand  our 
relations  with  England  and  with  France,  he  would  have  found 
the  state  of  our  relations  with  England  more  strained  than 
ever.  The  insanity  of  George  III  had  been  followed  by  a 
regency.  But  the  accession  *  of  the  Prince  Regent  had  been 
followed  by  no  change  in  the  ministry  and  by  no  change  of 
feeling  toward  the  United  States.  Despairing  of  accomplish- 
ing anything  further,  Pinkney  had  turned  to  his  instructions 
to  know  what  to  do.  They  were  dated  November  fifteenth, 
1810,  and  bade  him,  if,  when  they  arrived,  no  minister  had 
been  appointed  to  succeed  Francis  James  Jackson,  ask  for 
his  passports  and  come  home.f  No  successor  to  Jackson  had 
been  appointed,  and  Pinkney  accordingly,  on  the  thirteenth 
of  February,  wrote  for  an  audience  of  leave.  ^  The  effect 
was  immediate.  Before  the  sun  set  twice  Augustus  J.  Foster 
had  been  named  as  Minister.*  There  was  now  no  need  for 

•February  6,  1811. 

f  Smith  to  Pinkney,  November  15,  1810.  American  State  Papers,  Foreign 
Relations,  vol.  iii,  p.  376. 

|  Pinkney  to  Wellesley,  February  13,  1811.  American  State  Papers,  Foreign 
Relations,  vol.  iii,  p.  412. 

*  Wellesley  to  Pinkney,  February  15,  1811.     Ibid.,  p.  413. 

VOL.  m — 27 


402  DRIFTING  INTO  WAE.  CHAP.  xx. 

Pinkney  to  depart.  But  he  seems  to  have  thought  it  too  late 
to  turn  back  and  to  have  sought  to  provoke  some  act  which 
would  give  him  a  reason  for  leaving ;  for  no  sooner  did  he 
learn  that  Foster  was  to  set  out  for  Washington  than  he  asked 
of  Wellesley  what  the  new  Minister  was  to  do.  Was  he  to 
seek  to  restore  harmony  between  the  two  nations  ?  Was  he  to 
announce  the  repeal  of  the  orders  in  council ;  the  abandon- 
ment of  the  blockade  of  1806 ;  the  settlement  of  the  Chesa- 
peake affair ;  was  he,  in  short,  to  do  all  these  just  and  rea- 
sonable acts  necessary  to  make  the  two  peoples  friends  ?  *  The 
meaning  of  the  note  could  not  be  misunderstood.  It  was  an 
ultimatum.  It  was  accepted  as  such  and  politely  answered 
No.f  Pinkney  now  had  just  what  he  wanted,  and,  without  a 
moment's  delay,  he  sat  down  and  wrote  for  an  audience  of 
leave  on  the  twenty-eighth  of  February. :{:  The  audience  was 
given,  and,  for  the  first  and  last  time  in  the  history  of  our 
country,  an  American  minister  quitted  London  in  a  hostile 
and  threatening  manner. 

The  departure  of  Pinkney  was  followed  in  a  few  weeks  by 
the  departure  of  Foster.  His  instructions  bade  him  protest 
against  the  seizure  of  the  Floridas;  settle  the  Chesapeake 
affair  in  such  way  as  pleased  the  United  States;  take  the 
stand  that  the  French  decrees  had  not  been  repealed,  that 
Madison  was  quite  mistaken,  and  that  the  demand  for  the 
lifting  of  the  blockade  of  1806  could  not  be  complied  with. 
But  when  Foster  on  his  way  to  Annapolis  anchored  in  Hamp- 
ton Roads  late  in  June,  he  found  the  people  of  Norfolk  re- 
joicing over  an  occurrence  concerning  which  he  had  no  in- 
structions whatever.  While  he  was  at  sea,  the  frigate  Presi- 
dent had  met  and  beaten  the  English  corvette  Little  Belt. 

The  proclamation  of  Madison  renewing  trade  with  France 
had  brought  on  the  coast  a  fleet  of  English  ships  which  re- 
newed the  old  practice  of  blockade,  impressment,  and  search. 
Two  of  these  ships — the  Melampus  and  the  Guerriere,  Captain 
Dacres  in  command — lay  off  Sandy  Hook,  where  they  coin- 

*  Pinkney  to  Wellesley,  February  17,  1811.     American  State  Papers,  For- 
eign Relations,  vol.  iii,  p.  414. 

f  Welleslcy  to  Pinkney,  February  23,  1811.     Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  p.  415. 
j  Piukney  to  Wellesley,  February  23,  1811.     Ibid.,  p.  415. 


1811.          THE  PRESIDENT  AND  THE  LITTLE  BELT.  403 

mitted  such  bold  and  impudent  depredations  on  American 
merchantmen  bound  for  France  that  it  became  necessary  to  in- 
terfere. Commodore  John  Rodgers  was  accordingly  ordered 
by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  to  put  to  sea  and  protect  Ameri- 
can ships  from  English  cruisers.*  Rodgers  had  for  his  flag- 
ship the  forty-four-gun  frigate  President.  In  her  he  set  sail 
from  Annapolis  on  May  tenth  ;  passed  the  capes  on  the  four- 
teenth, and  on  the  morning  of  the  sixteenth,  when  some  thirty 
miles  from  Cape  Charles  and  some  eighteen  miles  off  the  coast, 
sighted  a  ship  to  the  eastward,  standing  toward  him  with 
all  sail  set.  As  well  as  he  could  make  out  from  the  shape  of 
her  sails,  the  stranger  was  a  man-of-war.  But  he  knew  of  no 
man-of-war  on  that  part  of  the  coast  save  the  Guerriere. 
Supposing  her  to  be  the  Guerriere,  he  determined  to  run  down 
and  ask  if  a  sailor  named  Diggio,  lately  impressed  from  an 
American  brig,  was  on  board.  During  several  hours  the  two 
ships  stood  toward  each  other,  the  stranger  showing  no  colors 
but  making  signals.  Finding  they  were  not  answered,  she 
changed  her  course  about  a  quarter  before  two,  and  bore  away 
to  the  southward,  with  Rodgers  in  full  chase.  At  half  past 
six,  the  vessels  having  approached  within  gun-shot,  the  stranger 
came  to  and  hoisted  her  flag.  But  it  was  then  too  dark  for 
Rodgers  to  distinguish  it ;  so  he  came  on,  and,  about  half  past 
eight,  rounded  to  within  pistol-shot. 

The  story  of  what  now  happened,  as  told  by  Commodore 
Rodgers  and  as  sworn  to  by  every  officer  and  man  of  his  crew, 
is  this:  As  the  President  rounded  to,  Rodgers  hailed  and 
shouted  through  his  trumpet :  "  What  ship  is  that  ? "  But  the 
stranger  sent  back  his  own  words :  "  What  ship  is  that  ? " 
"What  ship  is  that,  I  say?"  Rodgers  again  demanded.  A 
flash  in  the  dark  and  a  ball  in  the  President's  main-mast  was 
the  sole  reply.  The  next  moment  Third  Lieutenant  Alexander 
James  Dallas,  who  had  been  watching  at  a  port-hole,  rushed  to 
one  of  the  guns  in  his  division  and  fired  it  without  orders. 
The  stranger  answered  with  three  shots  and  a  discharge  of 
musketry.  The  President  sent  back  two  broadsides  which 

*  Secretary  Paul  Hamilton  to  Commodore  John  Rodgers,  May  6, 1811.    Manu- 
scripts, Navy  Department. 


404  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  OHAP.  xx. 

silenced  the  enemy  for  a  few  minutes.  But  she  again  opened, 
kept  on  firing  for  fifteen  minutes,  and  then  lay  disabled  and 
ungovernable  at  the  mercy  of  the  President's  guns.  The 
fighting  having  ceased,  Eodgers  again  hailed,  and,  under- 
standing the  stranger  to  be  in  great  distress,  beat  about  all 
night  with  lights  displayed.  At  break  of  day  a  boat  from  the 
President  went  on  board  and  came  back  with  word  that  the 
stranger  was  his  Majesty's  ship  Little  Belt,  a  corvette  of 
twenty  guns,  Captain  Bingham  commanding. 

The  story  of  Captain  Bingham,  as  told  at  the  official  in- 
quiry at  Halifax  and  as  sworn  to  by  his  lieutenants,  his  purs- 
er, his  surgeon,  and  his  boatswain,  was  very  different.  He 
was,  he  said,  on  his  way  from  Bermuda  with  despatches  for 
the  Guerriere,  when,  on  the  morning  of  May  sixteenth,  he  fell 
in  with  the  President  and  gave  chase.  But  early  in  the 
afternoon,  concluding  that  the  strange  sail  was  an  American 
frigate,  he  gave  up  the  chase  and  resumed  his  course  in  search 
of  the  Guerriere.  Thereupon  the  President  turned,  followed, 
and  at  half  past  six  was  near  enough  for  him  to  distinguish 
the  stars  in  her  broad  pennant.  Then  he  thought  it  prudent 
to  bring  to,  run  up  his  colors,  double-shot  his  guns,  and  take 
every  precaution  against  a  surprise.  At  a  quarter  past  eight 
he  hailed  and  asked  what  ship  it  was.  But  the  captain  of  the 
President  repeated  his  words,  and  fired  a  broadside,  to  which 
he  instantly  replied.  Each  commander  thus  accused  the  other 
of  firing  first.  But  no  one  who  will  take  the  pains  to  read, 
carefully  and  in  cold  blood,  the  evidence  collected  by  the  two 
governments,  will  doubt  that  the  first  shot  came  from  the 
Little  Belt.* 

The  Little  Belt  escaped  with  "  all  her  rigging  and  sails  cut 
to  pieces,"  -without  "  a  brace  or  a  bowline  left,"  with  her  "  up- 
per works  all  shot  away,"  with  her  starboard  pump  gone, 

*  The  British  statement  of  the  affair,  as  told  by  the  officers  of  the  Little  Belt 
and  transmitted  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  will  be  found  in  American  State  Papers, 
Foreign  Relations,  vol.  iii,  pp.  473-476.  The  Proceedings  of  the  Court  of  In- 
quiry held  on  the  conduct  of  Commodore  Rodgers  is  given  in  the  same  volume, 
pp.  476-498.  The  story  of  two  sailors  who,  at  Halifax,  claimed  to  be  desert- 
ers from  the  President  will  be  found  in  London  Times,  December  7,  1812 ;  the 
New  England  Palladium,  February  18,  1812;  and  the  Aurora,  February,  1812, 
The  men  were  never  on  the  President,  and  their  story  is  false. 


1811.          THE  PKESIDENT  AND  IDE  LITTLE  BELT..          405 

with  her  masts  damaged ;  "  with  many  shots  through  between 
wind  and  water,"  and  with  thirty-two  men  dead  or  wounded 
on  her  deck."  The  President  came  out  of  the  action  with 
one  boy  wounded  and  with  her  rigging  slightly  hurt,  and 
went  on  her  way  to  New  York. 

Thither  news  of  the  event  had  preceded  her.  Two  days 
after  the  fight  the  people  of  Norfolk  were  greatly  excited  by 
a  story  told  by  some  fishermen.  The  men  declared,  most  sol- 
emnly, that  after  sundown,  on  the  evening  of  May  sixteenth, 
they  had  heard  heavy  firing  off  Cape  Henry.  Not  a  person 
in  the  town  but  felt  sure  that  the  insolence  of  the  Leopard 
had  been  repeated,  that  the  Melampus  or  the  Guerriere  had 
attempted  to  search  the  President,  and  that  the  attempt  had 
been  resisted  with  force.  As  day  after  day  went  by  and 
neither  the  President  nor  any  confirmation  of  the  story  ar- 
rived, the  eagerness  of  the  people  along  the  Chesapeake  to 
know  the  result  became  intense.  Some  began  to  doubt  the 
pilots  and  the  fishermen.  Others  began  to  fear  that  the  Presi- 
dent, like  the  Chesapeake,  had  been  badly  disabled,  or  perhaps 
forced  to  strike.  But  at  Baltimore  the  people  were  more  for- 
tunate, and  had  scarcely  heard  the  news  when  it  was  con- 
firmed. On  the  twentieth  the  ship  Pallas,  from  Denmark, 
reached  that  port  with  a  statement  on  her  log  that  after  sun- 
down on  the  evening  of  the  sixteenth  heavy  cannonading  had 
been  heard  off  Cape  Charles,  that  the  fight  continued  from 
twenty  to  thirty  minutes,  and  that  upward  of  fifty  guns  had 
been  fired.*  Still  the  press  was  not  convinced.  One  journal 
cautioned  its  readers  to  beware  of  such  vague  rumors.  Eng- 
land would  not  be  guilty  of  such  an  act,  for  she  could  gain 
more  by  cajoling,  by  plundering,  by  impressing,  by  war  in  dis- 
guise than  by  war  without  disguise.  Rodgers  would  not  be 
guilty  of  such  an  act  without  order,  and  the  present  rulers 
were  not  the  men  to  issue  them.  Not  till  the  President 
passed  Sandy  Hook  and  dropped  anchor  in  the  bay  and  sent 
a  report  of  the  fight  to  the  city  was  it  generally  believed  that 
an  encounter  had  really  taken  place.  As  the  result  was  satis- 
factory, the  interest  in  the  affair  went  down  quickly,  and  when 

*  Baltimore  American;  Aurora,  May  23,  1812. 


406  DKIFTING  INTO   WAK.  CHAP.  xx. 

Foster  landed  at  Annapolis,  late  in  June,  the  people  were 
discussing  not  the  conduct  of  Rodgers,  but  the  reasons  which 
could  have  induced  the  Little  Belt  to  lay  to  at  dusk  and  pro- 
voke an  attack  from  so  large  a  frigate  as  the  President. 

From  Annapolis,  Foster  went  without  delay  to  Washing- 
ton, was  received  by  Madison  on  the  second  of  July,  and  that 
same  day  entered  on  the  duties  of  his  mission.  His  instruc- 
tions gave  him  power  to  do  but  one  thing.  He  might,  pro- 
vided he  listened  to  no  offensive  language,  settle  the  Chesa- 
peake affair  in  any  manner  the  United  States  desired.  It 
would  have  been  wise,  therefore,  to  have  begun  with  this  and 
win  what  good  feeling  he  could  by  ending  it.  But  he  chose 
another  course,  and,  having  made  a  long  protest  on  July  sec- 
ond against  the  occupation  of  "West  Florida,  followed  it  up 
on  the  third  with  one  longer  still  against  non-importation.* 
To  us  the  letter  is  of  no  small  interest,  for  it  states  fully,  yet 
concisely,  the  ground  on  which  Great  Britain  rested  her  orders 
in  council  and  the  reasons  why  she  would  not  revoke  them. 
The  Berlin  decree  was,  in  her  eyes,  a  direct  act  of  war.  It 
forbade  all  trade  with'  her  ports,  though  France  had  not  the 
means  necessary  to  enforce  the  prohibition.  Such  wanton  vio- 
lation of  the  laws  of  civilized  war  justified  England  in  retali- 
ating with  a  like  interdiction  of  all  commerce  with  France. 
But  she  waived  her  right  and  stopped,  not  all  commerce  with 
her  enemy,  but  such  as  was  not  carried  on  through  her  ports. 
No  one  knew  better  than  his  Majesty  that  such  restrictions 
must  be  hurtful  to  neutral  nations.  No  one  more  deeply  re- 
gretted that  they  were  so.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that 
the  injury  to  neutrals  arose  from  those  aggressions  of  France 
which  forced  England,  in  self-defence,  to  resort  to  the  orders 
in  council.  It  was  on  the  existence  of  the  decrees  of  Berlin 
and  Milan  that  his  Majesty  rested  the  justification  of  his 
orders.  Napoleon,  it  was  true,  rested  the  Berlin  decree  on 
what  he  was  pleased  to  describe  as  the  English  extension  of 
the  law  of  blockade.  She  had,  in  his  words,  extended  to  un- 
fortified towns  and  commercial  ports,  to  harbors,  and  to 

*  Foster  to  Monroe,  July  13,  1811.     American  State  Papers,  Foreign  Rela- 
tions, voL  1ii,  pp.  435-437. 


1811.  ENGLAND'S   CRITICISM  OF  FKANCE.  407 

mouths  of  rivers,  that  system  of  blockade  which  by  the  law 
of  nations  was  limited  to  fortresses  really  invested  by  force. 
Neither  the  law  of  nations  nor  the  practice  of  Great  Britain 
had  ever  justified  such  a  rule.  That  no  place,  except  fortresses 
in  a  state  of  complete  investiture,  could  be  deemed  lawfully 
blockaded  was  a  rule  of  Napoleon's  own  making.  He  had 
asserted  again  in  support  of  his  Berlin  decree  that  Great 
Britain  had  declared  places  to  be  in  a  state  of  blockade  before 
which  she  had  not  a  single  ship ;  even  whole  coasts  and  em- 
pires. This,  too,  was  false.  Never  for  a  moment  had  Great 
Britain  pretended  that  a  blockade  was  valid  unless  maintained 
by  an  adequate  force.  Her  blockade,  in  May,  1806,  of  the 
coast  from  Brest  to  the  Elbe  was  maintained  by  a  force 
especially  appointed  for  the  purpose,  and  was  lawful.  The 
grounds  on  which  the  Berlin  decree  rested  had,  therefore,  no 
existence.  The  attempted  justification  was  a  mere  pretence. 
The  decree  was  not  a  measure  of  just  retaliation,  as  were  the 
orders  in  council,  but  a  direct  act  of  war.  The  orders  thus 
resting  on  the  decrees  could  be  revoked  till  the  decrees  which 
caused  them  were  repealed.  Passing  to  the  assertion  of 
the  United  States  that  they  were  repealed,  Foster  reminded 
Monroe  of  the  speech  of  Napoleon  to  the  deputies  from 
Bremen,  Hamburg,  and  Lubeck,  of  the  report  of  Cadore,  of 
the  letter  of  the  Minister  of  Justice  to  the  President  of  the 
Council  of  Prizes,  of  the  seizure  of  the  brig  New  Orleans 
Packet  at  Bordeaux  and  of  the  Grace  Ann  Green  at  Mar- 
seilles, asked  him  if,  in  the  face  of  such  evidence,  the  assertion 
could  be  supported,  and  urged  the  injustice  of  non-importa- 
tion. The  question  was  most  pertinent  and  embarrassing,  and 
many  conferences  were  held  and  many  notes  exchanged  be- 
fore Monroe  made  answer.  He  was  seeking  for  time,  and, 
while  he  put  off  the  minister  from  England,  was  laboring  hard 
with  the  minister  from  France. 

On  September  twelfth,  1810,  John  Armstrong  left  France 
for  the  United  States,  leaving  Jonathan  Russell  as  charge 
$  affaires.  Cadore's  letter  of  August  fifth  had  promised  that 
the  decrees  of  Berlin  and  Milan  should  be  repealed  on  the 
first  of  November.  When  the  day  arrived,  Russell  accord- 
ingly wrote  asking  if  the  decrees  had  been  repealed.  But  a 


408  DRIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

month  went  by  without  an  answer,  and  while  he  waited  he 
received  from  Washington  a  copy  of  the  proclamation  of  No- 
vember second  and  instructions  to  consider  the  decrees  as 
revoked.  To  do  so  was  not  possible,  for  the  instructions  had 
not  been  eight  and  forty  hours  in  his  hands  when  the  Moni- 
teur  gave  positive  proof  that  the  decrees  were  still  in  force. 
In  one  issue  was  the  Report  of  Cadore  on  the  Foreign  Re- 
lations of  the  Empire  declaring  that  his  Majesty  would  per- 
sist in  his  decrees  as  long  as  England  persisted  in  her  orders  ; 
that  he  would  oppose  the  blockade  of  the  continent  to  the 
blockade  of  the  coast ;  and  the  seizure  of  British  goods  on 
land  to  pillage  on  the  seas.  In  another  issue  was  the  text  of 
a  report  by  Comte  Semonville  to  the  French  Senate  in  which 
he  described  the  decrees  as  "  the  palladium  of  the  seas."  Nor 
was  this  all,  for  Russell  had  a  week  before  sent  off  a  strong 
protest  to  Cadore  against  the  seizure,  long  after  November 
first,  of  the  brig  New  Orleans  Packet  and  the  schooner  Grace 
Ann  Green. 

In  spite  of  all  this  Russell  was  now  instructed  to  con- 
sider the  decrees  as  repealed.  He  obeyed,  sent  the  proclama- 
tion to  Cadore,  and  told  him  that  the  President  believed  the 
promise  of  August  fifth  to  have  been  made  good,  but  took 
occasion  to  demand  the  meaning  of  the  words  of  Semonville 
and  Cadore,  and  to  insist  that  the  system  of  issuing  French 
licenses  to  vessels  in  American  ports  must  stop.  No  official 
answer  was  ever  returned.  Russell,  however,  was  sent  for, 
was  assured  that  Napoleon  loved  America ;  assured  that  the 
decrees,  so  far  as  they  related  to  the  United  States,  were  at  an 
end,  and  received  the  two  letters  from  the  Minister  of  Justice 
and  the  Minister  of  Finance,  which  Madison  late  in  February 
transmitted  to  Congress  as  evidence  that  the  decrees  of  Berlin 
and  Milan  were  no  more.  These  letters  ordered  that  Ameri- 
can ships  seized  after  November  first  should  be  sequestered 
till  February  second.  Not  one  word  of  assurance  could  be 
obtained  that  the  decrees  had  been,  or  ever  would  be,  repealed 
as  to  Great  Britain.  But  Madison  considered  what  had  been 
done  as  quite  enough ;  sent  the  two  letters  to  Congress,  and 
on  them  as  evidence  secured  the  passage  of  the  Non-importa- 
tion Act  of  March  second,  which  Russell,  toward  the  end  of 


1811.  PRETENDED  REPEAL  OF  THE  DECREES.  409 

April,  delivered  to  the  Due  de  Bassano,  the  new  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs.  After  reading  it,  Napoleon  sent  for  his 
ministers  and  made  known  his  determination.  He  had  ex- 
pected that  the  United  States  would  declare  war  against  Eng- 
land. He  ought  to  insist  that  she  should ;  but,  as  she  had 
recognized  the  decrees  of  Berlin  and  Milan  by  authorizing  her 
citizens  to  trade  with  France  and  forbidding  them  to  trade 
with  England,  he  would  be  content.  He  would  say :  "  The 
decrees  of  Berlin  and  Milan  are  revoked  as  to  the  United 
States.  But  as  every  American  ship  which  goes  to  England 
or  is  bound  for  England  is  a  vagrant,  she  may  be  confiscated 
in  France."  This  he  was  the  more  ready  to  do  because  the 
day  did  not  seem  far  off  when  the  United  States  must  go  to 
war  with  Great  Britain.  The  true  policy  for  France  was  to 
leave  the  principle  involved  in  the  decree  a  little  obscure  and 
to  wait.*  When,  therefore,  the  Due  de  Bassano  answered 
Russell,  he  declared  the  will  of  the  Emperor  to  be  that  such 
ships,  sixteen  in  all,  as  had  come  direct  to  France  or  Italy 
since  the  first  of  [November,  and  had  been  sequestered,  should, 
both  ship  and  cargo,  be  released,  f  But  there  were  in  French 
ports  eight  other  vessels  captured  and  brought  in  by  French 
privateers  for  having  touched  at  English  ports.  Russell  now 
asked  what  was  to  be  done  with  them.;}:  Napoleon  was  eager 
for  delay,  and  two  months  passed  before  Bassano  replied  that 
three  of  the  eight  had  been  released.* 

So  many  were  the  delays  and  such  the  difficulties  which, 
in  those  troublous  times,  beset  the  transmission  of  intelligence, 
that  it  was  late  in  July  when  Madison  learned  of  the  release 
of  the  ships  set  free  in  May.  Even  then  the  intelligence  was 
unofficial,  for  it  came  from  England.  Nevertheless,  it  was  re- 
ceived with  thankfulness,  and,  unable  to  wait  for  official  de- 
spatches, the  Secretary  sent  at  once  for  Serurier.  |  More  than 
four  months  had  elapsed  since  the  Senate  had  confirmed  the 

*  Correspondence,  vol.  xxii,  p.  122. 

f  Bassano  to  Russell,  May  4,  1811.     American  State  Papers,  Foreign  Rela- 
tions, vol.  iii,  p.  505. 

J  Russell  to  Bassano,  May  11,  1811.    Ibid.,  p.  506. 

*  Russell  to  Monroe,  July  15,  1811.     Ibid,,  pp.  504-505. 
1  July  17,  1811. 


410  DKIFTING  INTO  WAR.  CHAP.  xx. 

appointment  of  Joel  Barlow  to  be  Minister  to  France.  Yet 
Barlow  still  lingered  at  Washington.  Against  this  Serurier 
had  repeatedly  protested  and  had  repeatedly  been  put  off  with 
excuses.  At  one  time  he  was  told  that  the  President  was  wait- 
ing for  the  arrival  of  the  Essex  with  despatches  from  France. 
At  another  that  the  President  was  hesitating  because  the  Essex 
had  not  brought  news  of  the  repeal  of  the  decrees  ;  because 
the  people  were  clamorous  that  Barlow  should  not  depart ;  be- 
cause, till  it  was  known  what  France  had  done,  the  instructions 
of  the  new  minister  would  not  be  written.  Now,  however, 
Serurier  was  told  that  if  he  would  write  a  letter  confirming  the 
news  of  the  repeal  of  the  decrees,  Barlow  should  set  off  im- 
mediately. Serurier  gladly  wrote  the  letter,  but  he  used  a  vague 
and  guarded  language  which  said  much  and  meant  nothing.* 
The  disgust  of  Madison  was  great.  He  had  hoped  to  obtain 
from  Serurier  a  positive  assurance  that  the  decrees  were  re- 
pealed, and  with  it  refute  the  denial  of  Foster.  He  had  failed, 
and  failed  so  completely,  that  he  did  not  venture  to  include 
this  letter  in  the  correspondence  which,  some  months  later,  he 
laid  before  Congress.  As  nothing  more  was  to  be  gained  by 
delay,  Monroe  now  answered  Foster.f  He  maintained  in  so 
many  words  that  the  decrees  had  been  repealed  as  to  the  com- 
merce of  the  United  States  on  the  high  seas.  This  was  proved 
by  the  fact  that  since  November  first,  1810,  no  American  ves- 
sel had  been  condemned  under  the  decrees.  The  seizure  of  the 
New  Orleans  Packet  and  the  Grace  Ann  Green  were  not 
cases  in  point.  They  had  been  seized  under  municipal,  not 
under  international  laws.  They  had  come  from  a  British  port 
and  had  attempted,  at  a  French  port,  to  enter  goods  forbidden 
to  come  into  France.  The  fact  of  repeal  again  was  proved  by 
the  speech  to  the  deputies  from  the  Hanse  Towns,  and  by  the 
reports  of  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  and  of  the  Minister 
of  Marine.  The  speech  declared  that  the  French  blockade  of 
England  should  cease  in  favor  of  those  nations  for  whom  Eng- 
land should  revoke  her  blockade  of  the  continent,  or  who,  by 

*  Serurier  to  Monroe,  July  19,  1811.  Monroe  Correspondence,  State  Depart- 
ment Archives. 

f  Monroe  to  Foster,  July  23,  1811.  American  State  Papers,  Foreign  Rela- 
tions, vol.  iii,  pp.  439-442. 


1811,  BAKLOW  SENT  TO  FRANCE.  411 

their  own  exertions,  should  resist  the  pretensions  of  England. 
The  United  States  had  resisted  the  pretensions  of  England  by 
the  act  of  May,  1810,  a  fact  admitted  by  France  in  the  letter 
of  the  Minister  of  Justice  to  the  President  of  the  Council  of 
Prizes.  What  more  did  England  expect  ?  Was  it  the  busi- 
ness of  the  United  States  to  open  the  continent  of  Europe  to 
English  commerce?  So  far  as  the  United  States  was  con- 
cerned, the  French  decrees  had  ceased  to  operate  on  the  high 
seas.  More  than  this  the  United  States  could  not  claim. 

Language  of  this  sort,  however,  was  reserved  for  Foster. 
To  Serurier  both  Monroe  and  Madison  spoke  in  a  very  differ- 
ent strain.  The  letter  to  Foster  had  hardly  left  the  Depart- 
ment of  State  when  Serurier  sent  in  the  official  intelligence  of 
the  release  of  the  ships  for  which  Madison  had  waited  so  anx- 
iously. Calling  the  next  day  to  bid  farewell  to  the  President, 
who  was  about  to  start  foi  Virginia,  conversation  turned  on 
this  action  of  the  Emperor.  Then  Madison  opened  his  heart, 
expressed  great  regret  that  American  ships  brought  into 
French  ports  since  November  first  by  French  cruisers  acting 
under  the  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees  had  not  been  released  with 
those  which  came  in  voluntarily,  and  said  that  failure  to  fulfil 
this,  the  chief  part  of  the  contract,  destroyed  the  effect  of  all 
the  rest.  He  might  have  said  that  it  raised  doubts  as  to  the 
veracity  of  his  Secretary.  Not  twenty-four  hours  before,  Mon- 
roe had,  over  his  own  signature,  declared  to  Fostei  that  Napo- 
leon was  enforcing  the  municipal,  not  the  international  opera- 
tions of  the  decrees.  Yet  the  ships  held  were  those  seized 
under  the  international,  and  the  ships  set  free  were  those  seized 
under  the  municipal  operations  of  the  decrees ;  facts  which 
proved  that  the  conduct  of  Napoleon  was  the  very  opposite  of 
what  Monroe  had  stated.  The  old  position,  however,  had  to 
be  maintained,  and,  in  the  instructions  which  Barlow  soon 
after  took  with  him  to  France,  it  was  again  distinctly  stated 
that  the  decrees  of  Berlin  and  Milan  were  repealed.  Having 
signed  the  instructions  and  issued  a  proclamation  calling  Con- 
gress together  on  the  fourth  of  November,  Madison  fled  from 
the  vexations  that  surrounded  him  at  Washington  to  the  quiet 
of  his  Virginia  plantation. 


412  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  PEACE.  CHAP.  xxi. 


CHAPTEK    XXI. 

THE   STRUGGLE    FOB   PEACE. 

As  the  newspapers,  one  after  another,  copied  the  procla- 
mation calling  Congress  together  in  November,  the  belief 
spread  far  and  wide  that  the  country  was  to  be  made  ready 
for  war.  Federalists  were  convinced  that  war  was  imminent, 
because  Foster  had  been  a  month  in  "Washington,  yet  had  ac- 
complished nothing ;  because,  on  the  very  day  the  proclamation 
was  issued,  the  French  Minister  had  been  long  closeted  with 
Monroe ;  and  because  Barlow  after  so  long  a  delay  had  been 
ordered  to  set  out  for  Paris.  Republicans  held  to  the  belief, 
because  war  with  England  was  just  what  they  wanted.  Their 
conversion  from  the  peaceful  ways  of  Jefferson  and  the 
men  they  now  began  to  call  the  Fathers  had  been  slow; 
but  it  had  at  last  been  accomplished,  and  had  been  accom- 
plished by  nothing  so  much  as  by  the  distress  produced  by 
the  restriction  they  themselves  had  laid  on  commerce.  In 
the  early  days  of  the  embargo  it  had  been  the  custom  of 
these  men  to  predict  great  benefits  to  the  country  from  the 
stoppage  of  foreign  trade.  Capital,  they  would  argue,  once 
locked  up  in  sea-ventures,  in  ship-building,  in  importing,  has 
been  turned  loose,  and,  forced  to  find  investment  somewhere, 
will  go  into  enterprises  too  long  neglected.  Manufactures  will 
begin  to  flourish.  Unable  to  bring  in  goods  from  abroad,  our 
people  will  soon  make  such  as  are  absolutely  necessary  at  home, 
and  sell  them  at  a  handsome  profit.  Is  this  to  be  regretted  ? 
Commerce  has  drawn  us  into  entangling  alliances,  has  exposed 
us  to  insult,  to  robbery,  to  abuse,  has  bred  a  taste  for  finery 
which  is  fast  breaking  down  the  simplicity  and  independence 
of  the  American  character,  and  has  spread  among  us  foreign 


1811.  ECONOMIC  EFFECTS  OF  EMBARGO.  413 

atheism,  foreign  sympathies,  foreign  political  ideas.  Embargo 
has  stopped  all  this,  and  will  show  the  people  that  they  can  be 
utterly  independent  of  Europe,  and  that,  if  they  wish  to  be 
great,  free,  prosperous,  and  happy,  they  must  depend  solely 
on  themselves.  Is  this  nothing  to  be  thankful  for  ? 

But  commercial  independence  of  Europe  was  not  to  be 
had  without  price,  and,  before  the  embargo  had  been  on  many 
months,  the  fine  things  it  was  to  produce  in  the  future  were 
forgotten  in  the  distress  it  produced  in  the  present.  Had 
ruin  been  the  end  and  aim  of  the  law,  a  better  time  for  its 
application  could  not  have  been  chosen.  In  March,  1807, 
Jefferson,  by  proclamation,*  had  put  off  the  operation  of  the 
Non-intercourse  Law  till  the  second  Monday  in  December. 
The  belief  was  general  that  it  would  then  be  again  suspended 
or  repealed,  and  no  preparations  of  any  kind  were  made  to 
meet  it.  Never  had  the  acreage  been  so  great.  Never  had  the 
movement  of  the  crops  to  the  seaboard  been  so  steady.  Even 
when  the  Non-intercourse  Act  did  take  effect,  the  shipments 
went  on  without  diminution,  for  it  was  the  fixed  determination 
of  the  merchants  to  evade  it.  The  exchanges  and  the  coffee- 
houses were  as  noisy  as  ever  with  the  hum  of  buyers  and 
sellers.  Never  had  the  underwriters  been  so  beset  for  insur- 
ance. Never  had  the  ports  been  more  crowded  with  shipping. 
Never  had  the  columns  of  the  newspapers  exhibited  such 
competition  among  the  merchants  and  shippers  for  cargoes. 
Suddenly,  without  assigning  a  single  reason,  without  giving  a 
moment's  warning,  the  embargo  was  in  force.  Every  stage- 
coach that  rumbled  out  of  Washington,  every  post-rider,  car- 
ried bundles  of  orders  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to 
the  collectors  of  the  ports,  and  all  foreign  trade  was  stopped. 
In  January  the  coasting  trade  was  restricted,  and  what  was 
well  named  a  paralysis  seized  on  the  business  of  the  coast 
towns  and  began  to  spread  inward.  Ships  were  dismantled 
and  left  half  loaded  at  the  wharves.  Crews  were  discharged. 
The  sound  of  the  caulking  hammer  was  no  longer  heard  in 
the  ship-yards.  The  sail-lofts  were  deserted,  the  rope-walks 

were  closed ;  the  cartmen  had  nothing  to  do.     In  a  twinkling 



*  March  24,  1807. 


414  THE   STRUGGLE   FOE  PEACE.  CHAP.  xxi. 

the  price  of  every  domestic  product  went  down,  and  the  price 
of  every  foreign  commodity  went  up.  But  no  wages  were 
earned,  no  business  was  done,  and  money  almost  ceased  to  cir- 
culate. Men  who  had  contracted  obligations  could  not  meet 
them,  and,  as  the  summer  wore  on  and  the  embargo  was  made 
more  and  more  severe,  failures  and  bankruptcies  began. 

To  form  an  accurate  conception  of  the  enormous  monetary 
loss  inflicted  on  the  people  by  the  embargo  would  not  now  be 
possible,  yet  it  is  not  impossible,  from  such  statistics  as  can  be 
gathered,  to  form  a  rude  idea  of  what  this  loss  must  have 
been.  The  Federal  revenues  fell  from  sixteen  millions  to  a 
few  thousands.  The  records  of  the  custom-houses  show  that 
more  than  thirty-five  thousand  sailors  had  taken  out  protec- 
tion papers  in  evidence  of  citizenship.  As  thousands  more 
did  not,  it  is  reasonable  to  believe  that  more  than  forty  thou- 
sand citizens  of  the  United  States  were  serving  as  sailors  on 
merchant  ships.  Some  had  been  pressed  into  the  service  of 
Great  Britain.  Some,  when  the  embargo  was  laid,  were  in 
foreign  ports  and  did  not  return  to  the  United  States.  Yet, 
when  all  due  allowance  is  made,  upward  of  thirty  thousand 
seamen  must  have  been  thrown  out  of  employment.  To  these 
are  to  be  added  twenty-five  thousand  foreigners  attracted  to 
the  American  service  by  high  wages.  Sailors'  wages  were 
thirty  dollars  per  month.  They  earned  at  least  three  hundred 
per  year,  and  lost  during  the  fifteen  months  of  embargo  twen- 
ty millions  of  dollars.  The  value  of  the  shipping  embargoed 
has  been  estimated  at  fifty  millions,  and,  as  the  net  earnings 
were  twenty-five  per  cent.,  twelve  and  a  half  millions  more 
were  lost  to  the  country  through  the  enforced  idleness  of  the 
vessels.  From  an  estimate  made  at  the  time,  it  appears  that 
one  hundred  thousand  men  were  believed  to  have  been  out  of 
work  for  one  year.  They  earned  from  forty  cents  to  one  dol- 
lar and  thirty-three  cents  per  day.  Assuming  a  dollar  as  the 
average  rate  of  daily  wages,  the  loss  to  the  laboring  class  was 
in  round  numbers  thirty-six  millions  of  dollars.  On  an  aver- 
age, thirty  millions  had  been  invested  annually  in  the  purchase 
of  foreign  and  domestic  produce.  As  this  great  sum  was  now 
seeking  investment  which  could  not  be  found,  its  owners  were 
deprived  not  only  of  their  profits,  but  of  two  millions  of  inter- 


1809.  COST  OF  EMBARGO.  415 

est  besides.  There  were  in  New  England,  another  computer 
asserts,  eighty  thousand  families  each  poorer  in  1809  by  just 
so  much  as  in  previous  years  they  had  derived  from  the  sale 
of  grain,  corn,  potash,  or  fish.  This  loss,  he  avers,  was,  on  an 
average,  one  hundred  dollars  each,  or  eight  millions  for  all. 
The  people  of  Portland  declared,  in  an  address  adopted  in 
town-meeting,  that  the  embargo  had  cost  them  seven  hundred 
thousand  dollars. 

Statistics  of  this  sort  are  indeed  to  be  received  with  the 
greatest  caution,  yet,  crude  and  hasty  though  they  be,  they 
afford  some  conception  of  the  financial  distress  the  embargo 
brought  on  the  poor  and  needy,  and  even  on  the  well-to-do. 
Unable  to  bear  the  strain,  thousands  on  thousands  went  to  the 
wall.  The  newspapers  were  full  of  insolvent-debtor  notices. 
All  over  the  country  the  court-house  doors,  the  tavern  doors, 
the  post-offices,  the  cross-road  posts,  were  covered  with  adver- 
tisements of  sheriffs  sales.  In  the  cities  the  jails  were  not 
large  enough  to  hold  the  debtors.  At  New  York  during 
1809  *  thirteen  hundred  men  were  imprisoned  for  no  other 
crime  than  being  ruined  by  the  embargo.  A  traveller  who 
saw  the  city  in  this  day  of  distress  assures  us  that  it  looked 
like  a  town  ravaged  by  pestilence.  The  counting-houses  were 
shut  or  advertised  to  let.  The  coffee-houses  were  almost 
empty.  The  streets  along  the  water-side  were  almost  deserted. 
The  ships  were  dismantled ;  their  decks  were  cleared,  their 
hatches  were  battened  down.  Not  a  box,  not  a  cask,  not  a 
barrel,  not  a  bale  was  to  be  seen  on  the  wharves,  where  the 
grass  had  begun  to  grow  luxuriantly.f  A  year  later,  in  this 
same  city,  eleven  hundred  and  fifty  men  were  confined  for 
debts  under  twenty-five  dollars,  and  were  clothed  by  the 
Humane  Society.:}: 

"While  the  poor  and  destitute  were  thus  languishing  in  the 
jails  of  the  great  Northern  cities,  the  planters  of  the  Southern 

*  December  11,  1808,  to  November  30,  1809. 

f  Lambert's  Travels,  vol.  ij,  pp.  64,  65. 

f  326  persons  for  debts  between  15  and  25  dollars. 

235      "          "       "  "          10    "    15       " 

591      "          "       "       under  10  dollars. 

1,152 


4:16  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  PEACE.  CHAP.  xxi. 

States  were  saved  from  immediate  ruin  by  stay  laws.  No  com- 
mand in  the  Federal  Constitution  is  more  clearly  expressed 
than  that  which  forbids  the  States  to  pass  laws  impairing  the 
obligations  of  contracts.  Yet  this  was  precisely  what  the  States 
south  and  west  of  Pennsylvania  proceeded  to  do.  Five  months 
after  the  embargo  was  laid,  Georgia  commanded  her  courts  and 
justices  of  the  peace  to  issue  no  executions,  and  her  sheriffs  to 
sell  no  property  levied  on,  if  the  defendant  would  give  secu- 
rity for  the  judgment  and  the  costs.  The  law  was  to  expire 
on  the  Christmas  day  following.  But  when  Christmas,  1808, 
came,  debtors  were  enabled  by  another  law  to  stay  execution 
for  another  year  by  paying  one  third  of  the  judgment  and 
one  third  of  the  costs  and  giving  security  for  the  rest.*  In 
Maryland  no  judgment  could  be  issued  against  the  body,  goods, 
chattels,  lands,  or  tenements  of  any  of  her  citizens  so  long  as 
the  embargo  continued  and  for  six  months  after  it  was  re- 
pealed.f  Yirginia  revived  her  Replevin  Law  of  1793,  with 
amendments,  and  the  provision  that  it  should  be  in  force  till 
thirty  days  after  the  lifting  of  the  embargo. :{:  Before  that 
day  she  replaced  it  by  another  to  stay  in  force  till  1810.* 
When  an  execution  issued  in  Ohio  the  sheriff  was  required  to 
summon  three  men  to  view  and  appraise  the  property  about 
to  be  seized.  lie  might  then  advertise  and  attempt  to  sell  it. 
But  if  no  bidder  offered  at  least  one  half  the  appraised  value, 
the  property  must  be  returned  to  the  owner  and  the  execution 
was  stayed  one  year.  |  North  Carolina  debtors  could  stay  pro- 
ceedings against  them  for  a  few  months  if  two  freeholders 
would  give  security  for  the  debt.A  In  Tennessee  writs  could 
be  stayed  by  the  defendant  offering  security  for  the  delivery 
when  wanted  of  goods  seized.^ 

*  Laws  of  Georgia,  May  24  and  December  23,  1808.   This  Stay  Law  was  after- 
ward extended  till  1810.  t  Laws  of  Maryland. 

$  Laws  of  Virginia,  session  1807-1808,  chap.  vi. 

*  Laws  of  Virginia,  session  1808-1809,  chap.  v. 
[  Laws  of  Ohio,  chap,  xxv,  February  20,  1809. 
A  Laws  of  North  Carolina,  December  23,  1809. 

Q  The  time  of  stay  varied  with  the  amount  involved.  For  debts  under  $5  the 
term  was  60  days;  from  $5  to  $10,  90  days;  $10  to  $'20,  120  days;  $20  to  $50, 
0  months.  Laws  of  Tennessee,  chap.  1,  November  23,  1809.  To  be  in  force  till 
October  1,  1811. 


1809.  STAY  LAWS.  417 

In  Pennsylvania  a  feeble  effort  was  made  by  the  people 
living  in  some  of  the  central  counties  and  in  the  counties 
beyond  the  mountains  to  secure  a  stay  law.  They  assured  the 
Legislature  that  they  looked  on  the  embargo  as  a  wise  and  bene- 
ficial measure ;  but  they  begged  most  piteously  to  be  relieved 
from  its  effects.  Money,  they  said,  had  almost  ceased  to  cir- 
culate. There  was  no  market  for  their  produce,  and  they 
could  not  pay  their  debts.  A  law  staying  suits  for  debt  and 
stopping  the  distress  and  sale  of  property,  or  at  least  re-enacting 
the  old  appraisement  law  of  1700,  ought,  in  their  opinion,  to  be 
instantly  passed.  The  Legislature  could  see  no  need  of  such 
a  law,  and  paid  little  attention  to  the  petitions. 

The  necessities  of  the  two  sections  of  the  country  were  in- 
deed very  different.  The  North  could  economize.  The  South 
could  not.  "When  the  Northern  farmer  found  his  produce  un- 
salable and  his  revenue  gone,  he  could  dismiss  his  few  labor- 
ers, put  a  patch  on  his  coat,  and  live  on  the  grain,  the  pork, 
the  flour  he  could  not  sell.  Not  so  the  Southern  planter. 
"Whether  his  tobacco  brought  two  dollars  or  ten  dollars  the 
hundred-weight,  whether  his  rice  was  sold  or  unsold,  whether 
his  cotton  was  sent  abroad  or  stayed  at  home,  his  expenses  were 
just  the  same.  His  house,  his  table,  his  social  standing  must 
be  maintained.  His  hundreds  of  slaves  must  be  clothed  and 
fed.  That  men  so  situated  should  demand  a  stay  law  to  keep 
their  lands,  their  houses,  and  their  slaves  from  falling  into  the 
clutches  of  the  shipper  on  whom  they  had  overdrawn  their 
account,  or  of  the  bank  they  owed  for  advances  on  their  crops, 
was  no  more  than  human  nature.  That  stay  laws  were  wise 
measures  no  one  for  a  moment  asserted ;  they  were  necessary. 
This  necessity  every  Republican  believed  came  not  from  the 
embargo,  but  from  the  conduct  of  Great  Britain  which  caused 
the  embargo.  On  England,  therefore,  they  laid  the  blame 
and  felt  toward  her  a  fierce  hatred  which  they  displayed  in 
many  curious  ways.  The  most  absurd  was,  perhaps,  the  attempt 
to  stop  the  use  of  English  common  law  in  American  courts. 
Many  years  before,  New  Jersey  had  forbidden  her  bar  to  cite 
or  read  in  her  courts  any  decision,  any  opinion,  any  treatise, 
any  compilation,  or  exposition  of  common  law  made  or  writ- 
ten in  Great  Britain  since  the  first  of  July,  1776,  and  pre- 

TOL.  III. — 28. 


418  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  PEACE.  CHAP.  xxi. 

scribed  a  heavy  punishment  for  any  counsellor,  solicitor,  or 
attorney  who  did.*  But  no  State  imitated  her  till  the  terrible 
time  of  the  embargo,  when  Kentucky  attempted  a  reform 
more  sweeping  still.  A  motion  was  made  in  the  Assembly 
that  henceforth  no  decision  of  a  British  tribunal,  and  no  treat- 
ise on  law  by  a  British  writer,  should  be  cited  as  an  authority 
in  any  court  of  the  State.  Though  the  motion  was  highly  pop- 
ular, though  almost  every  member  of  the  Assembly  declared 
himself  for  it,  Henry  Clay  had  the  good  sense  and  the  courage 
to  oppose  it.  No  man  present  was  a  stancher  Republican.  No 
man  was  more  intensely  American.  His  action  could  not  be 
attributed  to  any  love  for  England.  Yet  the  most  he  could 
obtain  was  an  amendment  limiting  the  proscription  to  such 
opinions  as  had  been  delivered  and  to  such  legal  works  as  had 
been  written  since  the  day  the  American  colonies  declared 
their  independence.  Pennsylvania  came  next.  A  member  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  Michael  Leib,  had  gone  into  a 
court  of  justice  and  had  there  heard  a  case  cited  from  an  Eng- 
lish reporter.  The  object  of  the  citation,  he  averred,  was  to 
show  that  the  constitution  of  Pennsylvania  did  not  authorize 
truth  to  be  given  in  evidence  save  under  certain  restrictions. 
Nay,  he  had  heard  the  judge  declare  that  while  truth  might  be 
given  in  evidence  it  could  not  be  given  in  justification.  This 
he  understood  was  the  common  law  of  England.  It  was  high 
time,  then,  that  the  alarming  and  dangerous  doctrines  of  that 
law  were  checked.  Were  the  people  of  Pennsylvania  to  go 
to  England  to  find  out  what  their  constitution  meant  ?  Were 
they  slaves  to  English  law,  creatures  of  English  precedent? 
He  thought  not,  and  in  a  little  while  a  bill  was  before  the 
House  forbidding  the  citation  of  any  English  decision  made 
since  July  fourth,  ITTG.f  At  the  next  session  of  the  Legisla- 
ture it  was  passed,:}:  and  remained  on  the  statute  books  for 
more  than  twenty  years.  * 

*  Laws  of  New  Jersey.     An  act  relating  to  Foreign  Reports,  sec.  1,  1801. 

f  Journal  of  the  19th  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Commonwealth  of 
Pennsylvania,  1809. 

$  Laws  of  Pennsylvania,  1810,  chap,  xcviii.  Journal  of  the  20th  House  of 
Representatives  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania,  1810. 

*  Purdon's  Digest  of  the  Laws  of  Pennsylvania,  edition  of  1830. 


1811.  THE  YOUNG  EEPUBLIOANS.  419 

The  bitter  hatred  of  England,  of  which  these  acts  are  but 
three  feeble  expressions,  increased  with  time,  till  it  became  a 
blinding  passion,  warping  the  judgment  and  overpowering  the 
reason.  The  Erskine  agreement,  in  the  eyes  of  Republicans, 
was  a  trap  set  to  catch  American  supplies.  Copenhagen  Jack- 
son was  a  minister  sent  over  to  insult  and  browbeat  the  Presi- 
dent. The  refusal  of  England  to  own  that  the  decrees  of 
Berlin  and  Milan  were  repealed  was  simply  malignant  stub- 
bornness. The  older  Republicans,  the  men  trained  in  the 
school  of  Jefferson,  still  had  faith  in  peaceful  measures,  and 
expected  much  from  the  eleventh  Congress.  But  when  that 
body  closed  its  term  amid  the  execrations  of  men  of  both  par- 
ties, all  hope  was  gone,  and  one  great  cry  for  war  went  up  in 
every  Republican  district.  The  constituency  of  the  party,  as 
well  as  the  political  creed  of  the  party,  had  changed.  Twenty- 
two  years  had  passed  since  the  day  in  January,  1789,  when 
presidential  electors  were  chosen  for  the  first  time.  Striplings 
then  were  men  of  middle  age  now.  Men  of  middle  age  then 
had  since  found  a  resting-place  in  some  quiet  cemetery,  or  had 
reached  that  time  of  life  when  they  were  more  disposed  to 
lament  the  evils  of  the  present  than  to  seek  to  remove  them, 
more  disposed  to  look  back  with  tender  regret  into  the  past 
than  forward  with  hope  into  the  future.  They  were  the  men 
who  had  taken  a  part  in  founding  the  Government.  They  had 
lived  under  the  articles  of  confederation.  They  had  framed 
the  constitutions  of  the  States,  and  debated  and  discussed  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  They  were,  as  Henry  Clay 
called  them,  "  the  fathers."  Their  work  had  been  to  set  up 
governments,  and  their  heads  were  full  of  theories  of  govern- 
ment. The  work  of  "the  sons"  was  to  administer  govern- 
ment. To  them  it  seemed  the  height  of  folly  that  commerce 
should  be  ruined,  that  agriculture  should  languish,  that  bank- 
ruptcy should  spread  far  and  wide,  because  it  was  not  good 
democratic  doctrine  to  have  standing  armies,  standing  navies, 
taxes,  and  war.  In  many  of  the  States  the  young  men  were 
already  in  control.  In  the  election  for  the  twelfth  Con- 
gress they  swept  the  country.  Of  the  one  hundred  and  forty- 
two  men  who  sat  in  the  eleventh  Congress,  sixty-one  were  not 
returned  to  the  twelfth.  A  political  revolution  of  the  utmost 


420  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  PEACE,  CHAP.  xxi. 

importance  had  taken  place.  A  new  generation  had  come 
into  power.  On  the  roll  of  the  new  House  were  the  names  of 
men  whom  this  generation  still  delights  to  honor ;  men  who 
for  many  years  to  come  controlled  legislation,  directed  events, 
sat  in  the  Speaker's  chair,  presided  over  important  commit- 
tees, filled  high  places  in  the  Cabinet,  led  political  parties, 
rose  to  be  governors  and  vice-presidents,  and  aspired  to  four 
years  of  life  in  the  "White  House.  Yet  not  one  of  these  men 
— neither  Henry  Clay,  nor  John  Caldwell  Calhoun,  nor  Rich- 
ard Mentor  Johnson,  nor  Felix  Grundy,  nor  Langdon  Cheves, 
nor  George  M.  Troup,  nor  Peter  Buell  Porter — had  then 
reached  his  forty-first  year.* 

For  us  who  look  back  it  is  easy  to  see  that  a  new  era 
opened  with  the  elections  of  1810.  For  those  who  took  part  in 
the  elections  the  result  meant  nothing  more  than  a  hearty  con- 
demnation of  the  hesitancy,  the  timidity  of  Congress  in  the  past, 
and  a  promise  of  energetic  measures  in  the  future.  As  such 
the  New  England  Federalists  beheld  it,  and  in  the  spring  of 
1811  they  labored  earnestly  to  control  their  State  Legislatures. 
In  Massachusetts  a  governor  was  to  be  elected  and  a  general 
court,  and  a  senator  to  take  the  place  of  Timothy  Pickering. 
For  governor  the  Federalists  put  forth  Christopher  Gore ;  the 
Republicans,  Elbridge  Gerry,  and,  under  the  cries  of  "  Gore 
and  Free  Trade,"  "  Gerry  and  Sequestration,"  the  campaign 
began.  No  carefully  arranged  party  platform  was  drawn  up. 
Resolutions  adopted  at  county  meetings  and  at  town  meetings 
in  the  great  cities  did  duty  instead,  and  from  these  may  be 
gathered  the  charges  brought  by  the  Federalists  against  their 
opponents.  They  were  charged  with  a  notorious  and  partial 
cringing  to  France  and  with  impotent  bluster  toward  England. 
They  were  charged  with  having  embroiled  the  country  in  a 
quarrel  with  both  belligerents,  which  they  dared  not  settle  with 
England  for  fear  of  France.  They  were  charged  with  cutting 
off  commerce,  with  ruining  agriculture,  with  pulling  down  the 
Bank,  with  exhausting  the  Treasury,  and  bringing  bankruptcy 
to  every  man's  door.f  All  to  whom  commerce,  the  fisheries, 

*  Biographical  Annals,  etc.,  Charles  Lanman. 
f  New  England  Palladium,  March  8,  1811. 


1811.  EFFECT  OF  NON-IMPORTATION.  421 

the  mechanical  arts  were  dear,  were  implored  to  unite  and  vote 
the  Washington  ticket.*  The  admission  of  Louisiana  with- 
out the  consent  of  each  State  was  complained  of.  It  was  a 
violation  of  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution  and  an  infringement 
of  the  rights  of  the  original  parties  to  the  compact.f  To  pre- 
serve the  Union  was  a  sacred  duty.  To  see  the  administration 
pursue  measures  hostile  to  the  Union  and  subversive  of  the 
Federal  compact  was  therefore  alarming.  Section  three  of 
the  act  of  March  second,  1811,  contained  a  provision  clearly 
intended  to  be  for  the  benefit  of  merchants.  It  might  so  hap- 
pen that  on  the  second  of  February,  the  last  day  of  grace, 
England  would  revoke  her  orders.  If  she  did,  her  action  could 
not  be  known  in  the  United  States  before  the  first  week  in 
March.  During  this  month  or  more,  numbers  of  ships  would 
leave  English  ports  for  the  United  States.  These  the  law  pro- 
vided should  be  seized,  but  released  on  bond,  the  bond  to  be 
satisfied  if  England  really  had  before  the  second  of  February 
revoked  the  order ;  the  bond  to  be  forfeited  if  she  had  not. 
The  language  of  the  section  was  "  any  vessel  or  merchandise." 
But  Gallatin  ruled  that  it  applied  not  to  any  vessel,  but  to 
foreign  vessels,  and  to  them  alone,  and  in  a  circular  to  the 
collectors  ordered  the  seizure  of  every  American-owned  ship 
which  left  a  British  port  after  February  second.  The  whole 
commercial  world  was  instantly  in  a  furor.  Such  a  blow  to 
commerce  had  not  been  struck  since  the  embargo.  The  act  of 
May,  1810,  and  the  proclamation  of  November,  1810,  had  left 
the  merchants  free  to  trade  with  England  and  her  colonies. 
Yast  quantities  of  American  produce  had,  accordingly,  during 
the  autumn  of  1810,  been  shipped  to  the  West  Indies  and  sold 
on  credit.  Buyers  were  to  pay  in  such  crops  as  had  a  market 
in  the  United  States.  But  these  crops  would  not  be  ready  for 
shipment  before  March  or  April,  and  were,  by  the  order  of 
Gallatin,  shut  out  of  the  country.  Millions  of  dollars  of  capi- 
tal were  thus  locked  up  in  the  West  Indies.  Hundreds  of  ships 
were  thrown  out  of  commission.  Thousands  of  sailors  were 
again  forced  into  idleness,  and,  before  election  day  came,  the 

*  New  England  Palladium,  February  19,  1811. 

f  Essex  County  Resolutions,  Columbian  Centinel,  March  16,  1811. 


422  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  PEACE.  CHAP.  xxi. 

Federalist  journals  had  a  black  list  of  fifteen  ships  confiscated 
in  American  ports  under  what  they  called  Gallatin's  decree. 

The  event  of  the  campaign,  however,  was  the  Federalist 
meeting  at  Faneuil  Hall  on  the  Sunday  night  before  election 
day.  Upward  of  five  thousand  are  said  to  have  been  present, 
and  these,  after  listening  to  earnest  speeches,  adopted  a  long 
series  of  resolutions.  Nothing,  they  said,  in  our  foreign  rela- 
tions could  justify  the  late  conduct  of  the  Government.  The 
French  decrees  were  not  repealed.  The  offers  of  France  to 
relax  them  were  deceptive.  The  act  of  March  was  unjust,  op- 
pressive, and  tyrannical.  It  tended  to  ruin  and  impoverish 
some  of  the  most  industrious  and  meritorious  citizens  of  the 
commonwealth.  The  only  means,  short  of  an  appeal  to  force, 
to  prevent  such  a  calamity  was  the  election  of  men  to  the  vari- 
ous offices  in  the  State  government  who  would  "  oppose  by 
peaceable  but  firm  measures  the  execution  of  laws  which,  if 
persisted  in,  must  and  would  be  resisted."  * 

There  was  little  in  these  sentiments  to  call  for  remark. 
The  tone  was  not  new  to  New  England.  They  were  uttered 
by  excited  men,  on  the  eve  of  a  hotly  contested  election, 
against  the  administration  which  had,  in  their  belief,  robbed 
them  of  their  money,  goods,  and  ships.  Yet  when  the  elec- 
tion was  over  and  Gerry  had  won,  he  took  up  the  resolutions 
and  in  a  long  speech  before  the  General  Court  answered  them 
in  detail.f  The  Federalist  press  answered  him.  The  Repub- 
lican newspapers  replied,  and  an  event  of  purely  local  impor- 
tance became  for  a  time  an  event  of  general  interest.  His 
speech  was  in  bad  taste.  The  charges  had  been  answered  at 
the  polls,  where  the  Republicans  carried  everything.  The 
governorship  was  theirs  by  three  thousand  majority.  The 
Assembly  was  theirs  by  a  majority  of  twenty-two,  and  for  the 
first  time  in  the  history  of  their  party  they  secured  a  majority 
of  the  Senate.  The  triumph  was  indeed  a  real  one,  for  it  en- 
abled the  Republicans  to  send  James  B.  Yarnum  to  the  Senate 

*  New  England  Palladium,  April  6,  1811.  The  threat  of  resistance  called 
forth  a  pamphlet,  Resistance  to  the  Laws  of  the  United  States ;  considered  in 
Four  Letters  to  the  Hon.  Harrison  Gray  Otis,  Esq.,  late  President  of  the  Senate 
of  Massachusetts.  By  Leolin.  Boston,  1311. 

f  Columbian  Centincl,  June  8,  1811. 


1811.  "THE  PLUNDERING  ACT."  423 

of  the  United  States  in  place  of  Timothy  Pickering,  whose 
term  had  expired,  and,  at  a  critical  moment  in  our  history, 
made  Massachusetts  a  Republican  State. 

The  excitement  in  New  England  did  not  go  down  with  the 
spring  election.  As  the  summer  wore  on,  the  distress  caused 
by  the  Plundering  Act — so  the  Federalists  nicknamed  the 
Non-importation  Law — threatened  to  renew  the  scenes  of  the 
O-grab-me  days.  The  working  of  this  law  and  the  fearful 
penalties  it  entailed  may  be  illustrated  by  a  single  case.  The 
ship  Lothair  had  sailed  from  Liverpool  for  Boston  on  the 
fifteenth  of  February.  The  Plundering  Act  had  not  then 
been  passed.  She  ought,  therefore,  by  civilized  usage  to  have 
been  exempt.  By  the  ruling  of  Gallatin's  circular,  however, 
she  fell  under  the  law  and  incurred  the  fines  and  forfeitures 
prescribed  by  the  fifth  and  sixth  sections  of  the  revised  act  of 
1809.  These  were  of  three  kinds.  In  the  first  place,  the 
owner  or  owners  of  the  cargo  forfeited  their  goods  and  three 
times  the  value  of  the  goods.  In  the  second  place,  the  owner 
of  the  vessel  forfeited  his  craft  and  three  times  the  value  of 
the  cargo.  In  the  third  place,  the  master  of  the  Lothair  was 
subject  to  a  fine  of  three  times  the  value  of  the  cargo.  The 
ship  was  worth  twelve  thousand  dollars;  the  cargo  was  ap- 
praised at  four  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  the  total  fine 
laid  on  captain,  ship-owner,  and  importers  was  four  millions 
and  twelve  thousand  dollars !  *  For  what  crime  was  this  ter- 
rible punishment  visited  upon  her?  She  had  left  England 
two  weeks  before  the  act  under  which  she -suffered  had  been 
passed.  Injustice  so  gross  was  too  much  for  the  judge,  who 
gladly  took  refuge  in  the  fact  that  she  had  cleared  out  on  the 
last  day  of  January,  and  released  her.  ~No  such  mercy  was 

*  1.  Owners  of  cargo  : 

Forfeiture  of  goods $400,000 

Fine  of  three  times  the  value  of  goods ' 1,200,000 

2.  Owners  of  ship  : 

Forfeiture  of  ship 12,000 

Fine  of  three  times  the  value  of  cargo 1,200,000 

3.  Master  of  ship  : 

Fine  of  three  times  the  value  of  cargo 1,200,000 

$4,012,000 


424:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  PEACE.  CHAP.  xxi. 

shown  to  ships  clearing  three  days  later.  That  such  fines 
should  be  laid  on  ships  which  at  any  time  sailed  in  ignorance 
of  the  law  was  bad  enough.  But  that  they  should  be  imposed 
on  vessels  leaving  port  before  the  law  existed  was  declared  to 
be  simply  infamous.  Seizures,  however,  went  on,  and  by  the 
middle  of  May  forty-four  informations  were  advertised  for 
trial  in  Boston  alone. 

"What  took  place  in  Boston  on  a  large  scale  took  place  on 
a  smaller  scale  in  every  port  of  entry  along  the  coast.  At 
New  Haven  the  merchants  appointed  a  committee  to  corre- 
spond with  the  neighboring  towns  and  petitioned  Madison  to 
call  Congress  together.  They  told  him  that  they  were  deeply 
engaged  in  the  "West  India  trade.  Their  exports  had  been 
sent  out  the  previous  autumn,  had  been  sold  on  credit,  and 
were  to  be  paid  for  in  produce  when  the  crops  were  marketed 
in  March  or  April.  Under  the  Non-importation  Law  these 
crops  could  not  come  in  at  all.  They  reminded  him  of  the 
suffering  this  brought  down  on  them,  on  the  ship-owners,  and 
on  the  seamen,  and  asked  by  what  constitutional  authority 
the  law  was  passed.  He  should  remember  that  "  cutting  off 
trade "  was  one  of  the  grievances  mentioned  in  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence ;  and  that  one  of  the  objects  of  the  revo- 
lution was  the  establishment  of  trade.  Possibly  he  might  not 
think  commercial  distress  extraordinary  enough  to  justify  an 
extra  session  of  Congress.  But  how  was  it  with  the  behavior 
of  France  ?  Did  not  her  refusal  to  revoke  her  decrees  after 
solemnly  promising  to  do  so  make  a  session  necessary  ?  * 

Madison  assured  the  merchants  that  the  Plundering  Act 
was  a  regulation,  not  a  destruction,  of  commerce,  and  perfectly 
constitutional ;  that  it  was  always  the  fate  of  a  few  to  suffer 
for  the  good  of  all,  and  that  the  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees,  so 
far  as  the  United  States  was  concerned,  were  repealed,  f 
Against  this  statement  the  Federalists  brought  up  four  stub- 
born facts.  The  first  was  the  report  of  Cadore  to  Napoleon,  \ 

*  May  4,  1811.     Columbian  Centincl,  May  11,  1811. 

f  May  24,  1811.     True  American,  June  17,  1811. 

\  "  Sire,  aussi  long-temps  que  1'An^leterre  persistcra  dans  ses  arrfits  du  con- 
seil  V.  M.  persistera  dans  ses  ddcrets.  Elle  opposera  au  blocus  des  cotes  le  blocus 
continental,  et  au  pillage  sur  lea  mcrs  le  confiscation  des  marchandises  anglaises 


1811.  DECREES  NOT  REVOKED.  4-25 

which  they  read  in  tha  newspapers  early  in  February,*  anjl 
which  declared  that  the  decrees  should  not  be  revoked  while 
England  maintained  her  blockade.  The  second  was  the  re- 
port made  to  the  French  Senate  on  the  annexation  of  the 
Hanse  Towns  to  the  empire.  The  chairman  of  the  committee 
was  the  Comte  de  Semonville,  and  in  his  report  he  said :  f  "  The 
decrees  of  Berlin  and  Milan  are  the  reply  to  the  orders  in 
council  of  Britain.  Europe  receives  these  decrees  as  her  code, 
and  that  code  shall  be  the  palladium  of  the  seas."  ^  The  third 
was  the  speech  of  Napoleon  to  the  Deputies  of  the  Hanse 
Towns — Hamburg,  Lubeck,  and  Bremen — in  which  he  dis- 
tinctly averred  that  "the  decrees  of  Berlin  and  Milan  are 
the  fundamental  laws  of  my  empire.  .  .  .  England  is  in  a 
state  of  blockade  as  to  those  nations  which  submit  to  the 
orders  of  1806."*  This  was  made  public  in  the  newspapers 
about  the  middle  of  May.|  The  fourth  was  the  language 
used  by  Napoleon  to  the  merchants  and  bankers  who  came  to 
congratulate  him  on  the  birth  of  a  son.  The  rambling  and 
excited  way  in  which  he  spoke,  the  threats  which  he  made 
against  the  whole  world,  led  many  who  were  present  to  write 
down  from  memory  what  he  said.  Several  reports,  differing 
in  details  but  agreeing  in  the  main,  were  soon  travelling  over 
Europe.  That  which  reached  America  and  was  read  by  the 
people  early  in  June  contained  the  words :  "  The  decrees  of 
Berlin  and  Milan  are  the  fundamental  laws  of  my  empire.  .  .  . 
The  fate  of  American  commerce  will  soon  be  decided.  I  will 

sur  le  continent."  Rapport  du  ministre  des  relations  extericures  a  S.  M.  1'Em- 
pereur  et  Roi.  Gazette  Nationale  ou  Le  Moniteur  Universel,  15  Decembre  1810. 

*  Columbian  Centinel,  February  2,  1811. 

f  "  Ce  jour  est  arriv6 ;  les  decrets  de  Berlin  et  de  Milan  sont  la  r^ponse  aux 
arrets  du  conseil.  Le  cabinet  britannique  les  a,  pour  ainsi  dire,  dictes  a  la 
France.  L'Europe  les  re9oit  pour  son  code,  et  ce  code  sera  la  palladium  de  la 
liberte  des  mers."  Gazette  Nationale  ou  Le  Moniteur  Universel,  17  Decembre 
1810. 

J  True  American,  April  5,  1811. 

*  "  Les  ddcrets  de  Berlin  et  de  Milan  sont  la  loi  fondamentale  de  mon  em- 
pire.    Us  ne  cessent  d'avoir  leur  effet  que  pour  les  nations  que  defendant  leur 
souverainete  et  maintiennent  la  religion  de  leur  pavilion.     L'Angleterre  est  en 
e"tat  de  blocus  pour  les  nations  qui  se  soumittent  aux  arrSts  de  1806."     Le  Moni- 
teur Universel,  20  Mars  1811. 

I  Columbian  Centinel,  May  15,  1811. 


426  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  PEACE.  OHAP.  xxi. 

favor  it  if  the  United  States  conform  to  these  decrees.  In  a 
contrary  case  their  ships  will  be  driven  from  my  empire."  * 
Here  is  a  mass  of  evidence,  the  Federalists  triumphantly  ex- 
claimed, which  cannot  be  gainsaid.  Out  of  the  mouth  of  Na- 
poleon and  his  officials  do  we  judge  France. 

Such  evidence  was  indeed  most  embarrassing ;  but  it  must 
be  explained  away,  and  the  duty  of  making  such  explanations 
was  laid  on  the  National  Intelligencer.  Selecting  the  speech 
to  the  bankers  and  merchants,  the  editor  began  by  doubting 
whether  it  had  ever  been  made.  Admitting  that  it  had,  he 
was  at  a  loss  to  know  why  it  concerned  America.  "What 
had  the  people  of  the  United  States  to  do  with  what  Napoleon 
said  to  his  officers  and  confidants  ?  Not  his  chit-chat,  but  his 
acts  concerned  us.  His  acts,  however,  seemed  to  be  strangely 
-misunderstood.  Many  people  supposed  the  decrees  of  Berlin 
and  Milan  had  not  been  revoked.  Yet  they  had  been  revoked 
as  to  the  United  States,  and  that  was  all  that  could  be  de- 
manded. True,  American  ships  were  seized,  but  the  seizures 
were  made  under  the  municipal  laws  of  France.  This  was 
certainly  offensive  and  insulting  to  us,  but  it  had  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  the  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees,  which  in- 
volved abstract  principles  of  blockade.f 

At  this  stage  in  the  quarrel  the  British  frigate  Minerva, 
with  Minister  Foster  on  board,  dropped  anchor  in  Hampton 
Roads  and  then  went  on  to  Annapolis.  All  eyes  were  now 
turned  on  him,  and  both  parties  waited  anxiously  for  news 
from  Washington.  As  the  weeks  passed  and  none  came,  grave 
fears  of  a  rupture  were  engendered.  Some  thought  the 
affair  of  the  Little  Belt  had  proved  an  obstacle.  Some 
thought  the  President  must  have  been  too  unyielding.  But 
not  till  the  National  Intelligencer  published  the  proclamation 
calling  Congress  together,  and  gave  the  reasons  for  the  call, 
was  all  hope  extinguished.  Foreign  relations,  the  Intelligen- 
cer informed  the  people,  had  made  the  meeting  of  Congress 
necessary.  The  communications  received  from  Foster  did 
not  come  np  to  the  reasonable  expectations  of  the  Govern- 
ment. The  repeal  of  the  orders  in  council  was  made  to  de- 

*  Aurora,  June  5,  1811.  f  National  Intelligencer,  June  15,  1811. 


1811.  HENRY  CLAY.  427 

pend  on  further  evidence  than  had  yet  been  received  of  the 
repeal  of  the  French  decrees.  Retaliation  was  threatened  if 
non-importation  was  persisted  in.  The  President  could  do  no 
more.  To  the  question,  What  next  ?  Congress  must  make  re- 
ply. But  the  Republican  press  did  not  wait  for  Congress  to 
reply,  and,  led  on  by  the  Aurora  and  the  Intelligencer,  it 
raised  the  cry  of  war,  and  was  still  laboring  strenuously  to 
bring  the  people  to  this  way  of  thinking  when  the  twelfth 
Congress  met  in  November.  The  House  at  once  elected 
Henry  Clay  its  Speaker. 

The  commanding  place  which  this  great  man  is  henceforth 
to  hold  in  my  narrative ;  the  influence  which,  whether  in 
office  or  out  of  office,  he  exerted  on  the  course  of  events  for 
forty  years  to  come ;  the  great  things  with  which  his  name  is 
joined ;  the  unmerited  obloquy  and  the  extravagant  praise 
with  which  he  has  been  loaded;  the  splendor  of  his  well- 
earned  fame  as  a  parliamentary  orator,  as  a  popular  speaker, 
as  a  popular  leader,  make  it  most  unfitting  to  discuss  him 
at  this  period  of  his  career.  A  few  words  by  way  of  biog- 
raphy shall  suffice.  All  attempts  to  estimate  his  character 
and  his  work  shall  be  left  till  that  day  in  June,  1852,  is 
reached  when  the  telegraph  announced  to  our  countrymen 
that  the  great  Whig  leader,  that  the  great  Pacificator,  that  the 
great  Compromiser,  that  "  Harry  of  the  "West,"  that  another 
of  the  illustrious  triumvirate — Clay,  "Webster,  and  Calhoun — 
was  dead. 

Henry  Clay  was  born,  his  campaign  biographies,  some  of 
which  passed  under  his  own  eye,  assure  us,  on  April  twelfth, 
1777,  in  Hanover  County,  Yirgina.  His  father,  John  Clay, 
was  a  Baptist  preacher  who  administered  to  the  spiritual 
wants  of  the  poor  whites  on  the  South  Anna  river  in  a  region 
known  as  "  the  Slashes."  In  1781  the  good  man  died,  leaving 
Henry,  in  the  language  of  his  campaign  biographers,  with 
poverty  for  his  only  inheritance  and  Providence  for  his  only 
guide.  But  this  is  unjust  to  his  mother.  She  indeed  was  a 
guide,  and  sent  him  regularly  to  the  little  log-cabin  where  the 
traditional  wandering  school-master  taught  him  to  read,  write, 
add,  and  spell.  When  not  in  school,  his  time  was  spent  labor- 
ing on  the  patch  of  land  which  cannot  be  called  a  farm.  Long 


428  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  PEACE.  CHAP.  xxi. 

afterward,  when  tlie  country  was  ringing  with  his  fame,  when 
it  became  fashionable  for  men  who  haci  never  distinguished 
him  from  hundreds  of  other  boys  to  ransack  their  memories 
for  anecdotes,  one  was  told  which  is  still  repeated.  In  this  he 
is  represented  as  a  hard-working  lad  dressed  in  a  coarse  cotton 
shirt  and  Osnaburg  trousers,  without  hat  and  without  shoes, 
straddling  a  bag  of  grain  or  corn  thrown  over  the  back  of  a 
horse  which  he  guides  with  a  rope  to  Daricott's  mill  on  the 
Pamunkey.  The  story  is  quite  probable,  and  his  admirers, 
taking  it  up,  won  for  him  thousands  on  thousands  of  votes  by 
dubbing  him  the  "  mill-boy  of  the  Slashes." 

At  fourteen,  his  mother  having  married  again,  his  step- 
father placed  Henry  in  a  small  retail  store  kept  by  one  Richard 
Denny  near  the  market  place  in  Richmond.  There  he  re- 
mained till,  a  year  later,  his  step-father  secured  for  him  a  yet 
better  place  in  the  office  of  Peter  Tinsley,  Clerk  of  the  High 
Court  of  Chancery.  To  the  senior  clerk  in  the  office  fell 
the  duty  many  years  after  of  describing  the  appearance  of 
the  lank,  awkward,  rawboned  boy  as  he  came  to  take  his  seat 
at  the  office  desk,  bearing  all  over  him,  in  the  arrangement 
of  his  hair,  in  the  cut  of  his  home-made  clothes,  in  the  un- 
common stiffness  of  his  shirt,  the  marks  of  the  pride  and  un- 
dying love  of  his  mother.  Hardly  was  he  settled  in  his  new 
place  when  his  step-father  caught  the  rage  for  Western  emigra- 
tion, and  the  whole  family  moved  into  Kentucky,  leaving  the 
lad  of  fifteen  to  make  his  way  as  best  he  could  at  Richmond. 
Fortunately,  he  attracted  the  attention  of  George  "Wythe,  the 
Chancellor,  and  was  selected  by  him  to  write  out  and  record 
the  decisions  of  the  Court  of  Chancery.*  During  the  four 
years  he  was  so  employed  the  Chancellor  took  a  fatherly  inter- 
est in  his  welfare,  shaped  his  manners,  formed  his  mind,  pre- 
scribed his  reading,  and  probably  suggested  that  he  should 
study  law.  Scanty  knowledge  was  then  required  for  admis- 
sion to  the  bar,  and  after  a  twelvemonth  in  the  office  of  the 

*  After  the  reports  were  published,  copies  were  sent  by  the  Chancellor  to 
Jefferson,  John  Adams,  and  Samuel  Adams.  In  these  copies  it  was  the  business 
of  Clay  to  make  notes,  dictated  by  Wythe,  sometimes  in  English  and  sometimes 
in  Greek.  One  of  the  volumes  once  belonging  to  Jefferson  is  now  in  the  library 
of  the  Supreme  Court  at  Washington. 


1811.  HENRY  CLAY.  429 

Attorney-General,  Clay  received  his  license  and  started  west  to 
begin  practice  at  Lexington,  Kentucky.  He  was  still  some 
months  under  age,  and  had,  as  yet,  no  higher  ambition  than  to 
make  each  year  one  hundred  pounds  Virginia  money.*  This 
jvrild  hope  was  quickly  realized.  Prosperity  attended  him  from 
the  very  start.  His  genial  qualities  won  him  friends.  His 
friends  brought  him  law-cases.  His  oratorical  powers  made 
him  successful  with  juries,  and  his  success  with  juries  spread 
his  fame  over  the  whole  State.  Before  he  had  been  two  years 
in  Lexington  his  friends,  his  clients,  and  his  local  fame  sufficed 
to  send  him  to  the  State  Constitution  Convention  of  1799.  In 
1803  he  entered  the  Legislature.  In  1806  he  went  to  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States  to  fill  the  unexpired  term  of  John 
Adair,  the  friend  and  confederate  of  Aaron  Burr.  There  he 
rose  at  once  into  notice  as  a  fine  speaker,  a  ready  debater,  a 
strong  friend  to  internal  improvements,  and  was  thought  not 
undeserving  of  repeated  mention  in  the  diaries  of  John  Quincy 
Adams  and  William  Plumer.  On  the  expiration  of  his  term  in 
1807  he  was  again  returned  to  the  Kentucky  Legislature,  was 
made  Speaker  of  the  Assembly,  once  more  distinguished  himself 
as  the  steady  advocate  of  internal  improvements  and  American 
manufactures,  and  in  1809  went  back  to  the  United  States 
Senate  to  fill  the  unexpired  term  of  Buckner  Thurston.  To 
the  roles  he  had  played  in  his  previous  term  a  new  one  was 
now  added.  He  was  still  the  champion  of  better  roads,  better 
canals,  better  means  of  communication  at  Government  expense. 
His  voice  was  still  raised,  his  vote  was  still  cast,  in  behalf  of 
every  effort  to  encourage  domestic  manufactures.  But  he  was, 
more  than  all,  the  mouth-piece  of  young  America.  In  almost 
every  speech  of  any  length  made  by  him  during  the  sessions 
of  the  eleventh  Congress  the  spirit  which  animated  the  young 
Republicans  is  easily  discernible.  In  his  speech  on  the  occu- 
pation of  West  Florida  it  is  expressed  most  fully. 

A  senator  from  Delaware  had  said  that  he  feared  that  the 
occupation  of  West  Florida  would  lead  England  as  the  ally 
of  Spain  to  make  war  on  us.  The  threat  set  Clay  on  fire,  and 
at  the  close  of  a  long  reply  he  burst  forth :  "  Sir,  is  the  time 

*  Clay's  speech  at  Lexington  in  1842. 


430  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  PEACE.  CHAP.  xxi. 

never  to  arrive  when  we  may  manage  our  affairs  without  the 
fear  of  insulting  his  Britannic  Majesty  ?  Is  the  rod  of  British 
power  to  be  forever  suspended  over  our  heads  ?  Does  Con- 
gress put  on  an  embargo  to  shelter  our  rightful  commerce 
against  the  piratical  depredations  committed  upon  it  on  the 
ocean :  "We  are  immediately  warned  of  the  indignation  of 
offended  England.  Is  a  law  of  non-intercourse  proposed : 
The  whole  navy  of  the  haughty  mistress  of  the  sea  is  made 
to  thunder  in  our  ears.  Does  the  President  refuse  to  continue 
a  correspondence  with  a  minister  who  violates  the  decorum 
belonging  to  his  diplomatic  character  by  giving  and  deliber- 
ately repeating  an  affront  to  the  whole  nation :  We  are  in- 
stantly menaced  with  the  chastisement  which  English  pride 
will  not  fail  to  inflict.  Whether  we  assert  our  rights  by  sea 
or  attempt  their  maintenance  by  land — whithersoever  we  turn 
ourselves  this  phantom  incessantly  pursues  us.  Already  has  it 
had  too  much  influence  on  the  councils  of  the  nation.  It  con- 
tributed to  the  repeal  of  the  embargo — that  dishonorable  re- 
peal which  has  so  much  tarnished  the  character  of  our  Govern- 
ment. Mr.  President,  I  have  said  on  this  floor,  and  now  take 
occasion  again  to  remark,  that  I  most  sincerely  desire  peace 
and  amity  with  England ;  that  I  even  prefer  an  adjustment  of 
all  differences  with  her  before  one  with  any  other  nation. 
But  if  she  persists  in  a  denial  of  justice  to  us,  or  if  she  avails 
herself  of  the  occupation  of  West  Florida  to  commence  war 
upon  us,  I  trust  and  hope  that  all  hearts  will  unite  in  a  bold 
and  vigorous  vindication  of  our  rights."  * 

That  Great  Britain  did  persist  in  denying  us  justice  was 
the  firm  belief  of  every  Republican  the  land  over.  And  when 
the  people  of  the  Lexington  district  sent  Clay  to  the  twelfth 
House  of  Representatives,  and  his  associates  in  that  House 
chose  him  Speaker,  they  did  so  because  they  were  determined 
to  have  in  the  future  a  bold  and  vigorous  vindication  of  our 
rights.  From  the  moment  he  took  his  seat  in  the  Speaker's 
chair  a  new  era  opens  in  our  history.  At  last  the  Republicans 
had  found,  what  had  long  been  wanted,  a  leader;  a  man  of 
the  people,  young,  eloquent,  intensely  American.  Hesitation, 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  1810-'!  1,  pp.  63-64. 


1811.  REPORT  ON  FOREIGN  RELATIONS.  431 

doubt,  timidity,  fear  of  England,  now  gave  way  to  a  bold  and 
well-defined  policy  of  peace  or  war.  Peace  if  Great  Britain 
did  us  justice ;  war  if  she  did  not. 

When  the  President's  Message  had  been  read,  it  became 
necessary  to  appoint  the  select  committees  to  whom  the  impor- 
tant paragraphs  were  to  be  referred.  As  Speaker,  the  appoint- 
ment rested  with  Clay,  who  chose  the  members  with  strict 
regard  to  the  new  policy,  and  in  two  weeks'  time  listened  to  a 
report  from  one  of  them,  every  line  of  which  was  warlike.  It 
came  from  the  Select  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations.*  "We 
will  not,  said  they,  encumber  your  Journal  nor  waste  your  pa- 
tience with  a  history  of  the  wrongs,  the  injuries,  the  aggres- 
sions known  and  felt  by  every  one.  The  cold  recital  of  them 
would  deaden  the  national  sensibility  and  make  callous  the  pub- 
lic mind.  The  committee  then  passed  in  review  the  decrees 
of  Berlin  and  Milan,  the  Embargo,  the  Non-intercourse  and 
Non-importation  Laws,  the  Erskine  Agreement,  the  perfidious 
conduct  of  England  since  the  repeal  of  the  decrees  by  France, 
and  the  shameful  indifference  with  which  the  impressment 
of  our  sailors  had  been  treated.  To  wrongs  so  daring  in  char- 
acter, the  committee  then  continued,  and  so  disgraceful  in  their 
execution,  the  people  of  the  United  States  can  no  longer  be 
indifferent.  "We  must  tamely  submit  or  boldly  resist.  The 
time  has  now  come  when  the  national  character,  so  long  tra- 
duced by  enemies  at  home  and  by  enemies  abroad,  must  be 
vindicated.  If  we  have  not  rushed  to  arms  like  nations  driven 
by  the  mad  ambition  of  a  single  chief,  like  nations  led  by  the 
avarice  of  a  corrupted  court,  it  has  not  been  because  we  fear 
war,  but  because  we  love  justice  and  humanity.  The  proud 
spirit  of  liberty  and  independence  which  sustained  our  fathers  is 
not  dead !  The  patriotic  fire  of  the  Revolution  still  burns  and 
will  yet  lead  the  people  to  those  high  destinies  which  are  not 
less  the  reward  of  dignified  moderation  than  of  exalted  valor. 
But  patience  has  now  ceased  to  be  a  virtue.  The  day  has 
come  when,  in  the  opinion  of  your  committee,  it  is  the  duty  of 
Congress  to  call  out  the  resources  and  rouse  the  patriotism  of 
the  people.  Then,  with  the  blessing  of  God,  we  shall  secure 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  1811-'12,  pp.  373-377. 


432  THE   STKUGGLE  FOR  PEACE.  CHAP.  xxi. 

that  redress  hitherto  denied  to  our  remonstrances,  our  for- 
bearance, our  just  demands.  To  this  end  the  committee 
offered  six  resolutions.  The  six  were  :  that  the  ranks  of  the 
regular  army  be  filled  up ;  that  an  additional  force  of  ten 
thousand  regulars  be  raised  to  serve  for  three  years ;  that  the 
services  of  fifty  thousand  volunteers  be  accepted ;  that  the 
President  order  out  from  time  to  time  such  detachments  of  the 
militia  as  the  public  service  may  require ;  that  all  ships  of  the 
navy  fit  for  sea  be  instantly  put  in  commission;  and  that 
merchantmen  be  suffered  to  arm. 

As  soon  as'  these  resolutions  were  taken  up  in  the  Com- 
mittee of  the  Whole,  Peter  Buell  Porter  rose  to  explain  them. 
The  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations,  said  he,  have  no  hope 
of  a  peaceful  settlement  of  our  differences  with  Great  Britain. 
Her  conduct  toward  us  is  not  regulated  by  her  sense  of  jus- 
tice, but  by  the  extent  of  our  submission.  For  six  years  past 
she  has  been  gradually  and  progressively  encroaching  on  our 
rights.  "We  have  seen  her  one  year  advancing  doctrines  which 
the  year  before  she  denounced.  We  have  seen  her  one  day 
seizing  our  ships  under  pretexts  which  the  day  before  she  was 
ashamed  or  afraid  to  avow.  Indeed,  she  has  been  steadily  and 
carefully  feeling  our  pulse  that  she  might  know  what  potions 
to  administer,  until,  if  we  go  on  submitting,  British  subjects 
will  soon  be  engaged,  not  only  in  taking  our  ships  in  the 
waters  of  our  harbors,  but  in  trampling  on  our  citizens  in  the 
streets  of  our  cities.  Looking  at  the  matter  from  this  stand- 
point, the  committee  are  strongly  in  favor  of  war.  We  can- 
not, indeed,  cope  with  England's  navy.  She  is  mistress  of  the 
sea.  But  there  were  two  ways  in  which  we  can  greatly  injure 
her.  We  can  cover  the  ocean  with  privateers,  we  can  destroy 
her  fisheries  to  the  north,  harass  her  West  India  commerce  as 
it  passed  our  doors,  annoy  her  trade  along  the  coast  of  South 
America,  and  plunder  her  ships  at  the  very  entrances  to  her 
own  ports.  We  can  take  from  her  Canada  and  the  rich 
province  to  the  eastward.  Let  such  a  warfare  be  begun — a 
war  on  land  at  the  public  cost,  a  war  on  sea  at  private  cost — 
and  we  shall  in  a  little  while  remunerate  ourselves  tenfold 
for  six  years  of  spoliation  of  our  commerce.  This  is  the 
kind  of  warfare  contemplated  in  the  resolutions.  I  entreat 


1811.  DEBATE  ON  A  REGULAR  ARMY.  433 

you,  therefore,  do  not  vote  for  the  resolutions  unless  you  will 
fight.  Do  not  raise  armies  unless  you  are  ready  to  use  them. 
Those  who  heard  him  were  ready  to  fight,  and  in  a  few 
hours  the  six  resolutions  were  approved  by  the  Committee 
of  the  Whole,  reported,  and  the  first,  passed  by  the  House. 

The  second  resolution  called  for  an  additional  force  of  ten 
thousand  regulars  for  three  years,  and  provoked  a  debate  on 
the  evils  and  dangers  of  a  standing  army.  Randolph  began  it. 
He  declared  that  the  resolution  contained  an  unconstitutional 
proposition,  because  no  money  could  be  voted  for  a  standing 
army  for  more  than  two  years,  and  that  such  an  army  was  un- 
necessary, because  seven  million  free  Americans  had  no  idea 
of  intrusting  their  defence  to  ten  thousand  mercenaries  picked 
up  at  brothels  and  tippling-houses.  He  would  like  to  know, 
moreover,  what  use  it  was  proposed  to  make  of  the  soldiers. 
Let  the  President  say  they  were  necessary  to  protect  ~New 
Orleans,  that  they  were  needed  to  fight  the  Indians,  that  they 
were  wanted  to  repel  invasion  from  Canada,  and  he  would 
vote  for  them.  But  he  well  remembered  the  reign  of  terror 
in  1798,  and  was  as  much  in  dread  of  a  standing  army  now  as 
he  had  been  then.  So  far  as  the  House  was  concerned,  there 
was  no  necessity  for  answering  Randolph.  The  majority  for 
the  resolution  was  eager  in  spirit  and  overwhelming  in  num- 
ber. But  the  war  party  wished  to  be  fair.  They  knew,  more- 
over, that  in  answering  Randolph  they  were  speaking  not  to 
him  and  his  few  followers,  but  to  all  their  countrymen,  to  Eng- 
land, to  France,  and  to  the  whole  world.  The  debate,  if  it 
may  be  so  called,  which  thus  sprang  up  and  occupied  the  time 
of  the  House  during  six  days,  is  interesting  for  many  reasons. 
Twenty  members  spoke,  yet  but  two — John  Randolph  and 
Richard  Stanford — had  a  word  to  say  against  the  resolution. 
The  majority  took  their  ground  carefully,  and  stated  their 
position  over  and  over  again.  There  had  not,  in  their  opinion, 
been  an  hour  since  1806  when  the  United  States  would  not 
have  been  fully  justified  in  making  war  on  England.  But 
the  prudence,  the  humanity,  the  patience,  and  long  suffering 
which  had  ever  marked  her  dealings  with  foreign  nations  had 
prevailed.  Congress  and  the  President  had  tried  every  peace- 
ful expedient  known  to  man  rather  than  attack  England  when 

TOL.  III. — 29. 


434:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  PEACE.  CHAP.  xxi. 

she  was  stretching  every  nerve  in  her  struggle  with  Napoleon. 
She,  however,  had  attributed  to  fear  what  was  due  to  human- 
ity. Every  offer  had  been  rejected ;  every  concession  had 
been  followed  by  a  new  indignity  till  from  very  shame  the 
United  States  must  strike  back.  This  was  the  will  of  the  peo- 
ple clearly  expressed  at  the  polls.  No  Congress  had  gone  fur- 
ther in  concessions  than  the  eleventh,  yet  how  many  members 
of  the  eleventh  had  seats  in  the  twelfth  ?  Hardly  one  half. 
And  what  was  the  feeling  of  those  chosen  by  the  people  to 
take  the  seats  of  the  sixty-one  men  rejected  ?  "Was  it  to  go  on 
negotiating,  go  on  submitting,  go  on  indifferent  to  the  cries  of 
six  thousand  American  sailors  impressed  into  English  service  ? 
No !  The  sentiment  of  these  new  members  was  for  war.  Let 
it  be  clearly  understood,  then,  exclaimed  one  of  the  speakers, 
that  these  resolutions  mean  war,  and  in  this  lies  the  difference 
between  the  army  which  Republicans  condemned  in  1798  and 
the  army  Republicans  are  to  raise  in  1812.  The  old  army  was 
not  for  use ;  the  new  army  is  for  use.  The  old  army  was  to 
extend  executive  patronage ;  the  new  army  is  to  take  the  Can- 
adas.  To  contend  with  the  navy  of  Great  Britain  is  impossi- 
ble. Happily,  it  is  not  necessary.  Such  is  her  condition  that 
she  can  send  but  a  few  ships  to  attack  us,  and  these  we  can 
drive  from  our  coast  with  the  frigates  we  have  and  a  few  that 
we  can  build.  Our  war  will  be  chiefly  on  land.  Before  deter- 
mining the  force  needed  for  such  a  war  the  committee  con- 
sulted the  Secretary  of  War,  and,  in  accordance  with  his  wishes, 
which  are  undoubtedly  the  wishes  of  the  President,  framed  the 
resolution  under  debate.  The  result  of  a  war  cannot  but  be 
beneficial.  The  loss  of  the  Canadas  will  end  British  power, 
influence,  and  intrigue  in  America.  Then  will  the  Indians 
cease  the  massacre  of  women  and  children.  Then  will  the 
Canadian  trade  be  secured,  and  the  political  equilibrium  of  the 
republic  be  made  secure.  When  the  vast  plains  of  Louisiana 
shall  be  populated  the  Northern  States  will  lose  their  power ; 
they  will  be  at  the  mercy  of  others.  It  is  wise,  therefore,  to 
add  the  Canadas  to  the  North  at  the  same  time  that  we  add 
the  Floridas  and  Louisiana  to  the  South. 

The  people,  said  Randolph,  will  never  submit  to  be  taxed 
for  such  a  war.     The  Government  of  the  United  States  was 


1811.  ARMY  BILL  FROM  THE  SENATE.  435 

framed  to  provide  for  the  common  defence  and  general  welfare. 
Whoever,  therefore,  plunges  it  into  an  offensive  foreign  war 
subjects  the  Constitution  to  a  strain  it  will  not  bear.  To  the 
men  of  Tennessee,  of  Genesee,  of  Lake  Champlain,  a  war  may 
be  of  advantage.  Their  hemp  will  bring  better  prices ;  they 
will  furnish  the  troops  with  supplies  and  grow  rich.  But,  my 
word  for  it,  the  planters  of  Virginia  will  not  be  taxed  to  sup- 
port a  war  in  which  they  have  not  the  slightest  interest  and 
which  cannot  but  add  to  their  present  distress.  His  speeches 
were  long  and  rambling,  abounded  in  denunciation  of  Eng- 
land, of  France,  of  John  Adams,  of  General  Wilkinson,  of  the 
administration,  of  the  plan  to  take  the  Canadas,  and  of  the 
call  for  a  standing  army.  Such  remarks  carried  no  weight, 
and  when  the  yeas  and  nays  were  taken,  but  twenty-one  mem- 
bers voted  with  him.  This  was  the  highest  number  reached 
by  the  minority  on  any  resolution  in  the  series.*  Sixteen  votes 
came  from  New  England ;  four  came  from  Virginia ;  North 
Carolina  furnished  two.  All  the  resolutions  having  passed  by 
handsome  majorities,  bills  in  accordance  with  them  were  or- 
dered. 

While  the  committee  was  at  work  on  their  tasks,  a  bill 
providing  for  an  additional  military  force  came  down  from  the 
Senate.  The  author  was  William  B.  Giles,  of  Virginia,  and 
his  purpose  was  not  to  aid  but  embarrass  the  administration. 
Madison  and  the  committee  had  asked  for  ten  thousand  men  for 
three  years,  not  because  they  believed  that  force  sufficient  to 
take  Canada,  but  because  they  believed  that  the  troops,  if  raised 
at  all,  should  be  raised  at  once,  and  because  it  was  not  likely 
that  the  recruiting  officers  could  in  one  year  find  more  than 
ten  thousand  men  who  would  enlist  for  three  years  of  service. 
Giles  proposed  to  call  for  twenty-five  thousand  regulars,  enlist 
them  for  five  years,  divide  them  into  regiments  of  two  thou- 
sand each,  and,  whether  the  ranks  were  filled  or  not,  commis- 
sion and  keep  in  pay  the  entire  staff  of  officers.  His  purpose 


*  Second  resolution 

:  Yeas,  110. 

Nays,  22. 

Third             " 

"     113. 

"       16. 

Fourth          " 

"      120. 

"        8. 

Fifth             " 

"      111. 

"       15. 

Sixth             " 

"       97. 

"       22. 

436  THE  STEUGGLE  FOR  PEACE.  CHAP.  xxi. 

was  apparent ;  nay,  he  was  told  to  his  face  that  his  aim  was  to 
drain  the  Treasury,  embarrass  the  fiscal  concerns,  and  paralyze 
the  best-arranged  measures  of  Government.  Yet  he  persisted, 
and,  by  the  help  of  every  Federalist  senator  present,  carried 
through  the  bill. 

On  reaching  the  House,  it  went  at  once  to  the  Committee 
on  Foreign  Relations.  That  Madison  was  then  consulted  is 
quite  likely,  for,  when  it  was  reported,  the  number  of  troops 
was  cut  down  from  twenty-five  to  fifteen  thousand.  On  this 
compromise  every  war  Republican  fell  with  vigor.  Their 
views,  however,  were  best  stated  by  Henry  Clay,  who,  as  the 
House  was  in  Committee  of  the  "Whole  was  out  of  the  Speak- 
er's chair,  and  seized  the  opportunity  to  attack  the  amend- 
ment. 

It  is  admitted,  he  said,  that  the  troops  are  to  be  raised  for 
war  purposes.  It  is  also  admitted  that  they  are  to  be  used 
against  Canada.  The  question,  then,  is,  Are  they  enough? 
All  military  men  know  that  when  any  given  number  of  troops 
is  to  be  raised,  from  a  quarter  to  a  third  must  be  deducted 
for  sickness  and  desertion.  Of  the  twenty-five  thousand  called 
for  by  the  Senate  bill,  twenty-one  thousand  may  be  considered 
as  fighting-men.  Add  to  this  the  four  thousand  already  in 
service,  and  there  will  be  twenty-five  thousand  with  which  to 
garrison  forts  along  the  seaboard  and  make  war.  Canada  is 
invaded.  The  upper  province  falls  and  the  army  moves  on 
Quebec.  There  will  indeed  be  no  European  enemy  behind 
the  troops,  but  it  is  a  rule  never  to  leave  in  the  rear  an  unde- 
fended place  of  strength.  As  the  army  marches  toward  Que- 
bec its  ranks  will  therefore  be  thinned  by  drawing  off  men  to 
hold  the  chief  towns'  along  the  route.  Much  reduced,  the 
invaders  at  last  sit  down  before  Quebec ;  the  city  falls,  and  the 
army,  yet  further  diminished  by  the  men  left  behind  on  garri- 
son duty,  moves  on  for  Halifax.  Is  it  not  obvious  that  an  army 
of  twenty-five  thousand  men  at  least  will  be  needed?  The 
difference  between  twenty-five  thousand  and  fifteen  thousand 
is  precisely  the  difference  between  a  short  war  and  a  long 
war,  between  a  war  fought  with  vigor  and  a  war  of  languor 
and  imbecility.  As  a  concession  to  such  Republicans  as  still 
held  to  their  old  party  traditions,  hated  a  standing  army,  and 


1812.          USE  OF  THE  ARMY  IN  TIME  OF  PEACE.  437 

dreaded  to  spend  the  public  money,  Clay  moved  an  amend- 
ment. He  would  have  the  officers  of  eight  regiments  commis- 
sioned at  once.  When  three  fourths  of  the  privates  of  these 
eight  had  been  enlisted,  he  would  have  the  officers  of  the 
five  other  regiments  commissioned,  and  not  before.  In  the 
end  he  carried  the  day,  and  the  House,  having  changed  the 
eight  to  six,  and  made  a  few  other  amendments,  passed 
the  bill  and  sent  it  to  the  Senate.*  Within  eight-and-forty 
hours  it  came  back  with  four  important  amendments  stricken 
out  almost  unanimously.  And  now  the  less  extreme  Kepub- 
licans  began  to  waver,  but  the  Federalists  once  more  came  to 
the  help  of  Clay.  The  House  receded  from-  all  its  amend- 
ments save  one,  and  on  January  eleventh  Madison  signed  the 
bill.f  While  the  document  was  on  its  way  to  the  President, 
Eandolph  once  more  returned  to  the  attack.  The  great  army 
about  to  be  raised  might,  he  said,  never  be  used  to  wage  war. 
In  that  event,  as  the  President  could  not  disband  them,  their 
time,  so  far  as  he  could  see,  would  be  spent  in  shouldering 
their  muskets  on  the  south  side  of  some  range  of  buildings. 
Idleness  of  this  sort  led  to  depravity  and  dissoluteness  of  man- 
ners. He  believed  that  regular  and  wholesome  labor  would 
preserve  the  health  of  the  troops,  and  make  the  burden  such 
an  existence  forced  them  to  bear  less  heavy.  If  they  were 
employed  in  digging  the  President's  house  or  the  war  office 
from  under  ground,  their  appetites  would  be  better  both  for 
their  existence  and  their  dinners.  He  moved,  therefore,  that, 
when  not  fighting,  the  army  should  be  kept  busy  building 
roads,  digging  canals,  laboring  on  works  of  public  utility. 
Against  this  proposition  every  Republican  cried  out.  Ran- 
dolph was  accused  of  seeking  to  degrade  the  army  to  the  level 
of  the  criminals  who  in  Maryland  dug  canals  and  in  Virginia 
made  shoes,  nails,  and  clothing ;  of  seeking  to  hinder  enlist- 

*  January  6,  1812.     Yeas,  94.     Nays,  84. 

f  For  receding  from  the  amendment  providing  that  the  officers  of  but  six 
regiments  should  be  commissioned  the  yeas  were  67,  nays  60.  For  receding  from 
the  second,  providing  that  the  officers  should  remain  in  commission  so  long  as  the 
President  thought  fit,  the  yeas  were  67 ;  nays,  60.  The  third  amendment,  pro- 
viding that  officers  should  not  be  paid  unless  in  service,  was  adhered  to ;  yeas,  49 ; 
nays,  76.  The  fourth  amendment,  giving  the  President  power  to  appoint  officers 
during  the  recess  of  the  Senate,  was  lost.  Yeas,  61 ;  nays,  40. 


438  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  PEACE.  CHAP.  xxi. 

ment ;  of  wishing  to  embarrass  public  measures ;  and  his  mo- 
tion, by  a  vote  of  one  hundred  and  two  to  fifteen,  was  rejected. 

This  flurry  over,  the  House  went  into  committee,  took  up 
a  bill  to  raise  a  volunteer  corps,  and  soon  plunged  into  a 
curious  constitutional  debate.  The  bill  authorized  the  Presi- 
dent to  accept  the  services  of  fifty  thousand  volunteers,  to  be 
officered  by  the  State  authorities,  and  called  into  service  by 
the  President.  Under  the  Constitution  he  could  call  them  in 
service  for  either  of  three  purposes — to  execute  the  laws,  to 
put  down  insurrection,  to  repel  invasion.  But  these  volun- 
teers were  to  be  used  for  no  such  purposes.  They  were 
to  go  with  the  regulars  and  invade  Canada.  The  question 
then  arose,  May  the  militia  be  used  without  the  limits  of  the 
United  States  ?  Almost  everybody  thought  it  could  not.  An 
amendment  was  therefore  offered  requiring  each  volunteer  to 
sign  an  agreement  to  serve  without  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
United  States.  Every  variety  of  opinion  was  expressed. 
Some  thought  militia  could  be  used  to  chase  an  invading  enemy 
over  the  border.  Some  thought  it  could  be  marched  into 
Canada  if  the  States  to  which  it  belonged  consented.  Some 
thought  that,  as  the  Constitution  provided  for  two  kinds  of 
troops,  the  regulars  and  the  State  militia,  the  regulars  must  be 
used  for  offensive  war  and  the  State  militia  for  defensive. 
Others  thought  the  amendment  useless,  for,  said  they,  if  the 
Constitution  does  not  give  the  President  power  to  use  mi- 
litia without  the  United  States,  how  can  Congress  authorize 
him  to  do  so?  The  question  was  not  settled,  and  the  bill 
when  it  reached  Madison  *  said  not  a  word  on  the  use  of  the 
volunteers  beyond  our  borders. 

The  war  Republicans  had  now  met  with  their  first  check. 
Seemingly  it  was  slight.  In  reality  it  was  disastrous.  It  de- 
prived the  President  of  the  use  of  the  volunteers  in  Canada. 
It  left  a  handful  of  regulars  to  fight  the  battles  across  the 
frontier.  It  went  far  toward  causing  that  series  of  shameful 
defeats  which  cost  us  Canada.  It  was,  and  this  for  the  time 
being  was  more  important  than  all  else,  the  first  manifestation 
of  a  state  of  feeling  that  parted  the  leaders  of  the  war  Re- 

*  Approved  February  6,  1812. 


1812.  THE  NAVY  BILL.  439 

publicans,  damped  the  ardor  of  their  followers,  and  threw  the 
proceedings  of  the  House  into  dire  confusion. 

The  immediate  cause  of  this  quarrel  was  a  bill,  brought  in 
by  the  Naval  Committee,  to  repair  and  fit  out  all  vessels  of 
war,  build  ten  new  frigates  averaging  thirty-eight  guns  each, 
buy  a  stock  of  timber,  and  construct  a  dry  dock  at  some  con- 
venient place.  The  question  involved  was  not  merely,  Shall 
or  shall  not  ten  frigates  be  built,  shall  there  be  a  navy  large 
enough  to  guard  our  commerce  abroad  or  small  enough  to 
defend  our  ports  at  home  ?  but,  Shall  the  affairs  of  this  people 
be  ruled  henceforth  by  the  Kepublicans  of  the  old  school  or 
by  the  Kepublicans  of  the  new  ?  To  hate  a  navy  had  always 
been  a  Republican  principle  since  the  day  when  John  Adams 
brought  together  the  little  fleet  of  ships  and  frigates  which 
more  than  once  humbled  the  flag  of  France.  Now,  on  a  sud- 
den, Eepublicans  were  asked  to  build  a  navy.  Every  Republi- 
can who  yielded  to  that  request,  who  raised  his  voice  or  cast 
his  vote  for  the  ships,  bade  farewell  to  the  party  of  Jefferson, 
of  Clinton,  of  Duane,  and  took  his  place  in  the  ranks  that  fol- 
lowed the  leadership  of  Henry  Clay.  No  one  knew  this  better 
than  Langdon  Cheves.  As  chairman  of  the  Naval  Committee 
he  opened  the  debate  and  fairly  stated  the  issue.  "  I  know," 
said  he,  "  how  many  and  how  strong  are  the  prejudices,  how 
numerous  and  how  deeply  laid  are  the  errors  which  I  have  to 
encounter  in  the  discussion  of  this  question.  I  have  been  told 
that  a  naval  establishment  is  unpopular.  It  has  been  hinted 
that  those  who  become  the  zealous  advocates  of  the  bill  will 
not  advance  the  estimation  in  which  they  are  held  by  their 
associates.  But  no  such  considerations  can  stop  me.  I  wish  to 
lead  no  man.  I  am  determined  not  to  be  blindly  led  by  any 
man.  In  acting  with  a  party,  I  do  so  because  I  believe  its 
principles  to  be  the  best.  But  I  do  not  feel  myself  bound, 
therefore,  to  renounce  my  individual  opinions ;  to  take  no  inde- 
pendent part  in  the  labors  of  the  party  to  which  I  belong." 
Having  thus  declared  himself  independent  of  the  traditions  of 
the  past,  he  fell  to  work  earnestly  in  defence  of  a  new  navy. 
But  he  went  too  far.  His  followers  deserted  him  by  dozens. 
Clay  and  Lowndes  and  Calhoun  and  Porter  came  bravely  to 
his  support.  But  Johnson  and  Grundy,  men  as  eager  as  he  for 


440  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  PEACE.  CHAP.  xxi. 

war,  attacked  him  fiercely.  All  the  old  familiar  arguments, 
all  the  old  predictions  of  evil,  all  the  old  terrors  used  by  the 
Eepublican  press  in  1798  to  excite  the  people  against  a  navy, 
were  again  resorted  to.  History,  ancient  and  modern,  was 
ransacked  for  instances  of  nations  enslaved,  of  peoples  impov- 
erished by  their  navies.  The  experience  of  Tyre  and  Sidon, 
Crete  and  Rhodes,  Athens  and  Carthage,  was  cited  to  prove 
that  the  moment  a  people  ceased  to  confine  their  navy  to  de- 
fence at  home,  they  rushed  into  piracy,  plunder,  and  war ;  that 
the  moment  a  people  put  forth  their  strength  upon  the  sea  they 
grew  weak  upon  the  land ;  that  their  rights  were  neglected, 
their  burdens  made  heavy,  their  happiness  and  their  liberty  de- 
stroyed. I  deny,  cried  out  one  speaker,  that  the  United  States 
can  maintain  a  navy  without  oppressing  the  mass  of  the 
people  with  the  tax-gatherer.  Even  if  a  great  navy  could  be 
maintained  it  would  be  dangerous  to  the  peace  and  tranquillity 
of  the  nation.  A  navy,  said  another,  will  increase  the  execu- 
tive patronage,  for  it  must  be  kept  in  time  of  peace  as  well  as 
in  time  of  war.  We  fought  England  once  without  a  navy, 
said  a  third,  and  we  can  do  so  again.  Stirred  up  by  such 
appeals,  the  old  Eepublican  spirit  rose  high  and  the  committee 
refused  to  build  another  frigate  *  or  spend  one  dollar  for  a 
dock  yard.f  Shorn  of  these  provisions,  the  bill  passed  both 
House  and  Senate. 

For  the  time  being  the  war  leaders  had  lost  control.  Their 
majority  was  gone.  They  could  accomplish  nothing;  and 
measures  deemed  of  the  gravest  importance  were  defeated. 
A  bill  to  provide  for  a  uniform  militia  throughout  the  United 
States  was  lost  by  three  votes.  $  On  a  bill  to  arm  the  militia, 
they  with  difficulty  commanded  a  majority  of  sixteen.  A  res- 
olution calling  for  a  committee  to  frame  a  bill  authorizing  a 
provisional  army  of  twenty  thousand  men  was  voted  down  by 

*  On  the  motion  to  strike  out  the  section  the  yeas  were  62  ;  nays,  59. 

f  Motion  to  strike  out,  yeas,  66  ;  nays,  62. 

\  The  militia  were  to  be  divided  into  three  classes :  minor,  junior,  and  senior. 
In  the  minor  were  to  be  youths  from  eighteen  to  twenty-one,  liable  for  three  months' 
duty  in  their  own  State.  The  juniors  were  to  be  men  from  twenty-one  to  thirty- 
one,  liable  to  a  year's  duty  anywhere.  The  seniors  were  to  be  men  from  thirty- 
one  to  forty-five,  liable  to  six  months'  duty  in  their  own  or  an  adjoining  State. 
Lost:  Nays,  58;  yeas,  55, 


1812.  DEFEAT  OF  THE  WAR  LEADEES.  441 

a  majority  of  nine.  The  refusal  to  provide  these  troops  was  a 
defeat  as  crushing  as  the  refusal  to  build  ten  frigates.  Porter, 
who  moved  the  resolution,  reminded  the  House  that  its  own 
acts  had  placed  the  country  on  the  verge  of  war,  and  that  Eng- 
land was  well  aware  of  these  acts.  She  knew  that  Congress 
was  making  ready  in  a  good-natured,  desultory,  easy-going  way 
to  capture  Canada.  Knowing  this,  she  would  act,  for  it  was 
not  her  habit  to  strike  the  second  blow.  It  behooved  Con- 
gress, therefore,  if  it  really  meant  to  take  Canada,  to  push  for- 
ward its  preparations  with  vigor  and  decision.  Had  it  done 
so  as  yet  ?  A  law  had  been  passed  to  raise  twenty-five  thou- 
sand regular  troops,  but  no  reasonable  man  could  say  that  they 
would  be  raised  in  time  to  render  any  service  for  a  year  to 
come.  Their  officers  were  not  even  appointed.  They  were  to 
be  enlisted  in  every  part  of  the  country  from  Maine  to  Tennes- 
see. It  would  take  months  to  collect  them  after  they  had  en- 
listed, and  begin  the  march  to  the  frontier.  The  regulars, 
then,  were  not  to  be  counted  on.  Neither  were  the  fifty  thou- 
sand volunteers ;  for  it  was  an  open  question  whether  they  could 
be  sent  into  Canada.  As  the  law  stood,  if  they  went  at  all  it 
must  be  of  their  own  volition.  The  President  could  not  send 
them.  What  force,  then,  had  been  given  the  President  with 
which  to  make  war  ?  Practically  not  one  man.  Yet  the  Com- 
mittee on  Foreign  Relations  were  every  day  blamed  for  not 
reporting  a  declaration  of  war.  Let  the  President  be  given  a 
provisional  army,  an  army  into  which  the  young  men  who 
composed  the  militia  would  gladly  enlist  and  go  wherever  their 
services  might  be  needed.  But  he  appealed  in  vain.  Even 
Cheves  and  Lowndes,  Grundy  and  Troup,  deserted  him.  "When 
the  leaders  thus  fell  apart,  when  the  man  who  had  begged  for 
an  efficient  navy  voted  against  an  efficient  army,  the  situation 
was  serious.  Yery  wisely  they  stopped,  abandoned  all  hopes  of 
securing  further  means  of  defence,  and  turned  their  attention 
to  raising  money  to  pay  the  cost  of  the  few  troops  and  ships 
that  had  been  given  them. 

The  duty  of  suggesting  the  manner  of  defraying  the  charges 
of  war  belonged,  of  course,  to  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means 
and  was  diligently  performed.  Toward  the  middle  of  Febru- 
ary the  chairman  presented  a  report  covering  the  three  years 


442  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  PEACE.  CHAP.  xxi. 

1812, 1813,  and  1814.  The  ordinary  expenses  for  1812  would, 
the  report  stated,  be  something  over  nine  millions,  could  be 
paid  out  of  the  receipts  and  the  surplus,  and  leave  a  trifle  in 
the  Treasury.  The  extraordinary  expenses  would  be  eleven 
millions,  and  should  be  met  by  a  loan.  The  public-debt  account 
would  need  nearly  six  millions,  which  the  Commissioners  of 
the  Sinking  Fund  should  borrow.  In  1813  there  would  be  a 
deficit  of  something  over  six  and  in  1814  of  something  over 
seven  millions,  and  these  must  be  made  good  by  taxation. 
The  new  taxes — the  war-taxes  as  they  came  to  be  called — were 
to  be  of  three  great  classes :  duties  of  import  and  tonnage,  in- 
ternal duties,  and  a  direct  tax  of  three  millions.  The  first  class 
should  comprise  an  additional  duty  of  one  hundred  per  cent, 
on  imported  goods,  wares,  and  merchandise,  a  new  tonnage 
duty,  an  increase  of  twenty-five  per  cent,  in  drawbacks  on  ex- 
ported goods,  and  a  duty  on  salt.  The  internal  duties  should 
be  laid  on  licenses  to  distil  liquors  from  foreign  materials,  on 
licenses  to  retail  wines,  spirits,  and  foreign  goods,  on  sales  at 
auction  of  foreign  goods,  on  sugars  refined,  on  pleasure  car- 
riages, and  a  stamp-tax  fashioned  on  the  hated  stamp-tax  of 
John  Adams. 

A  bill  to  raise  eleven  millions  by  loan  bearing  six  per  cent, 
interest  and  payable  in  twelve  years  passed  at  once  without 
trouble,  and  by  a  majority  of  sixty-three.  The  remaining  sug- 
gestions were  then  reported  by  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  to 
the  House  in  the  form  of  resolutions.  All  went  well  with  them 
till  the  resolution  to  tax  salt  was  reached,  when  a  violent  clamor 
was  raised.  Eepresentatives  from  the  middle  country  com- 
plained that  it  would  fall  on  them  and  not  on  the  people  of  the 
seaboard  or  the  West.  Along  the  Atlantic  coast  the  farmer  did 
not  need  to  salt  his  cattle.  In  the  West  were  many  salt-works 
which  supplied  the  people  at  ten  cents  per  bushel.  The  farm- 
ers in  the  middle  country  had  no  such  resource,  and  by  them  the 
proposed  tax  of  twenty  cents  a  bushel  on  imported  salt  would 
be  paid.  This  was  unjust.  This  was  admitted  to  be  so,  but  they 
were  told  not  to  look  at  any  one  tax.  They  should  look  at  the 
whole  system  of  taxation.  The  salt-tax  would  undoubtedly 
bear  a  little  heavy  on  one  part  of  the  community,  the  tonnage- 
duty  on  another,  the  spirit-tax  on  another,  the  carriage-tax  and 


1812.  WAR  TAXES.  443 

the  stamp-tax  on  yet  others.  But,  taking  the  system  as  a  com- 
promise, it  was  as  fair  and  equal  as  any  that  could  be  produced. 
The  majority  were  now  divided  on  geographical  grounds ;  the 
spirit  of  sectionalism  was  rife,  and  the  resolution  to  tax  salt  was 
lost  by  three  votes. 

So  bitter  was  the  feeling  of  the  South  against  the  East  and 
"West  that  a  motion  was  made  to  change  the  whiskey-tax  from  a 
tax  on  the  capacity  of  the  still  to  a  tax  of  twenty-five  cents  a  gal- 
lon. Clay  ruled  that  the  motion  was  out  of  order.  All  propo- 
sitions to  raise  revenue  must,  he  said,  be  first  discussed  in  Com- 
mittee of  the  "Whole.  The  House  then  adjourned  from  Friday 
to  Monday.  During  the  recess  every  effort  was  made  by  the 
war  leaders  to  close  the  breach  and  win  back  their  majority. 
Southern  members  were  told  that  the  system  of  taxation  pro- 
posed was  one  of  compromise  and  concession.  It  must  stand 
or  fall  as  a  whole.  If  the  salt-tax  were  rejected  because  it 
would  press  heavily  on  the  people  of  the  South,  the  land-tax 
would  have  to  be  rejected  because  it  would  press  heavily  on 
the  people  of  the  "West,  and  the  system  would  go  to  pieces. 
So  successful  were  these  arguments  that  when  the  House  met 
again  a  reconsideration  of  the  vote  was  moved,  carried,  and  a 
resolution  to  tax  salt  passed  by  twelve  majority.  But  the  Re- 
publicans were  far  from  united.  Again  a  motion  was  made 
to  recommit  the  resolution  relating  to  the  liquor-tax  in  order 
that  whiskey  might  be  taxed  at  twenty-five  cents  the  gallon. 
Had  this  been  done,  the  Maryland  fruit-grower,  who  distilled 
his  two,  three,  or  four  thousand  gallons  of  apple  brandy,  would 
have  to  pay  five  dollars  into  the  Treasury,  but  the  rye-growing 
farmer  of  Pennsylvania,  of  Virginia,  of  Kentucky,  who  distilled 
four  thousand  gallons  of  whiskey,  would  have  to  pay  one  thou- 
sand dollars  into  the  Treasury.  The  gross  injustice  of  this  dis- 
tinction, and  the  meanness  of  the  spirit  which  prompted  it, 
compelled  the  member  from  Maryland  to  withdraw  his  motion 
from  very  shame,  and  the  resolution  passed  as  the  committee 
had  reported  it.  On  March  fourth,  all  the  resolutions  hav- 
ing been  passed,  the  committee  was  instructed  to  report  by 
bill.  It  was  resolved  at  the  same  time  that  none  of  these 
taxes  should  be  laid  unless  war  actually  began,  that  none  should 
continue  longer  than  one  year  after  peace,  and  that  each  State 


444  THE  STRUGGLE   FOB  PEACE.  CHAP.  xxi. 

might  assume  and  pay  so  much  of  the  direct  tax  as  fell  to  its 
share. 

With  the  help  of  the  Federalists  the  war  Republicans  had 
now  dragged  Congress  to  the  pass  where  it  must  decide,  and 
decide  quickly,  the  question  of  war  or  peace.  That  the  ques- 
tion of  war  could  not  be  raised  with  any  hope  of  success  in 
the  present  temper  of  the  House  was  apparent.  It  was  with 
the  utmost  difficulty,  and  with  all  the  help  the  Federalists  gave, 
that  enough  votes  could  be  had  to  carry  through  what  little 
legislation  had  been  accomplished.  It  was  certain  that  many 
Republicans  who  had  voted  for  a  regular  army  they  did  not 
believe  could  ever  be  enlisted ;  who  had  voted  for  volunteers 
that  would  never  cross  the  border ;  for  manning  frigates  that 
could  never  quit  our  harbors ;  for  taxes  not  to  be  laid  till  war 
began — would  shrink  from  an  open  declaration  of  war.  What 
the  Federalists  would-  do  was  most  uncertain.  They  had,  it 
was  true,  voted  for  war  measures.  But  they  had  been  silent 
in  debate  and  had  given  no  reason  whatever  for  the  votes 
they  cast.  That  the  aim  of  this  conduct  was  to  embarrass  the 
administration  was  no  secret.  But  that  they  would  actually 
go  so  far  as  to  declare  war  on  their  old  friend  and  ally  seemed 
hardly  reasonable.  Yet  such  was  their  intention.  Silent  as 
they  were  in  debate,  they  were  talkative  enough  in  the  closet 
of  the  English  Minister.  To  him  they  told  all — that  they 
would  vote  for  a  declaration  because  they  saw  no  end  to  com- 
mercial restrictions  save  in  war ;  that  the  war  would  not  last 
nine  months ;  that  the  Republicans  would  before  that  time  be 
turned  out ;  and  that  the  Federalists,  having  everything  their 
own  way,  would  then  make  a  solid  peace  with  England.* 

Of  this  the  war  leaders  knew  nothing,  and,  in  the  hope  of 
rousing  a  strong  war  spirit  in  that  wing  of  the  party  most 
lacking  in  it,  Madison  and  his  advisers  decided  to  make  use 
of  some  papers  fortune  had  thrown  in  their  way.  Late  in 
the  autumn  of  1811  a  ship  reached  Boston  bearing  two  men 
known  to  their  fellow-passengers  as  John  Henry  and  Count 
Edward  de  Crillon.  Each  had  a  grievance.  Crillon,  who 
traced  descent  from  one  of  the  oldest  families  in  the  French 

*  Foster  to  Wellesley,  December  11,  1811. 


1812.  THE   HENRY   LETTERS.  445 

nobility,  who  owned  great  estates  in  Lebeur  near  the  Spanish 
border,  who  was  connected  by  marriage  with  the  Marechal 
Due  d'Istrie,  the  favorite  of  Napoleon,  had  been  so  un- 
happy as  to  incur  the  anger  of  the  Emperor  and  had  fled 
to  England.  Henry  was  the  man  who  in  the  winter  of  1808 
travelled  through  New  England  and  sent  back  to  the  Governor- 
General  of  Canada  long  accounts  of  the  angry  feelings  of  the 
Federalists.*  For  this  he  had  been  rewarded  by  the  late  Gov- 
ernor Sir  James  Craig.  But,  thinking  the  reward  far  beneath 
his  deserts,  he  went  to  London  and  there  demanded  thirty-two 
thousand  pounds.  At  London  he  was  treated  with  great  dis- 
tinction, was  received  in  the  highest  circles,  was  complimented 
with  a  ticket  as  member  of  the  Pitt  Club,  arid  in  the  course  of 
his  social  pleasures  fell  in  with  Count  Edward  de  Crillon.  From 
Government,  however,  he  could  get  nothing  more  than  a  recom- 
mendation to  Sir  George  Prevost,  Governor  of  Canada,  and  the 
offer  of  a  passage  to  Halifax  in  a  ship-of-war.  Enraged  at  this 
treatment  and  burning  for  revenge,  he  determined  to  return 
to  the  United  States,  took  passage  in  a  ship  bound  for  Boston, 
and  on  going  to  Hyde  to  await  its  arrival,  again  met  Count 
Crillon.  The  Count  also  was  bound  for  America  on  the  same 
ship.  But  head  winds  detained  her  for  eight  weeks  in  the 
Downs.  During  this  time,  and  on  the  voyage  over,  a  strong 
friendship  sprang  up  between  the  two.  Crillon  expressed  the 
greatest  sympathy  for  Henry,  urged  him  to  sell  his  papers  to 
the  United  States,  and  offered  to  enlist  the  services  of  Serurier 
in  his  behalf.  On  reaching  Boston,  Crillon  accordingly  wrote 
to  the  French  Minister  and  told  the  story  of  Henry  and  his 
papers.  No  notice  was  taken  of  his  letter,  and  Crillon  came 
to  Washington,  called  on  Serurier,  and  by  him  was  sent  to 
Monroe.  The  price  asked  for  the  letters  was  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  thousand  dollars.  The  sum  offered  was  fifty  thou- 
sand. Henry  was  then  called  from  Boston,  and,  after  extort- 
ing a  promise  that  his  papers  should  not  be  given  to  the  public 
till  he  was  safe  at  sea,  sold  them.  On  the  tenth  of  February 
the  money  was  paid  partly  out  of  the  contingent  fund  for  for- 
eign intercourse  and  partly  out  of  the  contingent  fund  of  the 

*  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,  vol.  iii,  pp.  285-286. 


446  THE   STRUGGLE   FOR  PEACE.  CHAP.  xxi. 

Department  of  State.*  The  next  stage  which  left  Washington 
carried  off  John  Henry  on  his  way  to  New  York.  Thence  he 
was  to  sail  on  the  very  first  vessel,  merchantman  or  ship-of-war, 
that  left  the  port  for  France  where  he  was  to  take  possession 
of  a  fine  estate  he  had  purchased  from  Crillon.  It  was  on 
Saturday,  the  seventh  of  March,  that  Monroe  learned  that 
Henry  was  really  off  for  Europe.  On  Monday,  the  ninth,  the 
letters  were  laid  before  Congress,  f 

First  in  the  series  was  a  note  from  Secretary  Ryland,  ex- 
pressing the  Governor's  high  appreciation  of  Henry's  work 
during  the  winter  of  1808  and  inviting  him  to  undertake 
another  mission  to  Boston  during  the  winter  of  1809.  Then 
came  the  instructions.  Henry  was  to  study  the  state  of  public 
opinion  on  politics  and  on  the  prospect  of  war,  find  out  the 
true  strength  of  the  two  great  parties,  and  which  was  likely  to 
prevail.  It  was  supposed  that  if  the  Federalists  came  back  to 
power  in  New  England  they  would  seek  to  break  up  the 
Union.  In  that  event  would  the  leaders  look  to  England  for 
help  ?  If  so,  all  communications  with  the  Governor  of  Canada 
were  to  go  through  the  hands  of  Henry.  It  is  needless  to  say 
that  the  mission  was  accepted,  and  long  letters  written  from 
Burlington,  from  Windsor,  from  Amherst,  and  from  Boston. 
The  excitement  over  the  Force  Act  and  the  embargo  was  then  at 
its  height.  Gathering  his  impressions  of  public  feeling  from 
the  rumors  and  the  angry  talk  he  heard  at  the  village  taverns 
on  the  way,  he  represents  the  people  as  ripe  for  rebellion.  He 
declares  that  the  Governor  of  Yermont  will  not  call  out  the 
troops  to  enforce  the  embargo,  and  that  in  case  of  war  he  will 
keep  his  State  neutral.  But  the  Federalists,  he  predicts,  seek 
an  alliance  with  England.  As  he  passed  through  New  Hamp- 
shire what  he  heard  convinced  him  that  war  was  near.  At 
Boston  he  remained  till  the  proclamation  of  Madison  announc- 
ing the  Erskine  agreement  led  to  his  recall.  Yet  his  letters 
contain  nothing  of  the  slightest  importance.  No  names  are 
mentioned,  no  facts  are  stated,  no  accounts  of  the  condition  of 
public  feeling  are  given  which  could  not  have  been  written  by 

*  Copies  of  the  two  checks  may  be  seen  in  the  True  American,  March  21, 1812. 
f  Annals  of  Congress,  1811-1812,  pp.  1162-1181. 


1812.  CKILLOX  AN  IMPOSTOR.  447 

a  man  who  had  never  set  foot  in  Boston,  who  had  never  even 
landed  on  our  shores,  and  who,  living  in  the  heart  of  London, 
depended  for  his  knowledge  of  our  politics  on  the  New  Eng- 
land Palladium  and  the  Boston  Gazette.  It  is  impossible  to 
read  the  Henry  letters  without  being  convinced  that  their 
value  was  justly  estimated  by  Lord  Liverpool  when  he  refused 
to  pay  the  author  one  shilling.  The  long  letter  of  instructions 
from  Sir  James  Craig  and  the  short  note  from  Robert  Peel, 
Secretary  to  Lord  Liverpool,  do  indeed  prove  that  Henry  was 
employed  to  find  out  if  New  England  was  ripe  for  rebellion. 
But  beyond  this  the  collection  is  worthless.  Nay,  more ;  when 
the  letters  published  by  Congress  are  laid  beside  the  originals, 
still  preserved  in  London,  it  appears  that  they  are  not  even 
honest  copies.  Nor  was  this  the  only  fraud  connected  with 
the  affair.  Crillon,  after  lingering  in  "Washington  till  he 
could  no  longer  do  so  with  safety,  suddenly  announced  his  in- 
tention of  hurrying  back  to  France,  throwing  himself  at  the 
Emperor's  feet,  and  imploring  pardon.  Nothing  could  check 
his  eagerness,  and  on  April  first  he  left  Washington  laden 
with  despatches  to  Barlow  and  Bassano.  But  his  courtly  man- 
ners, his  charming  conversation,  his  patriotism,  his  admiration 
for  Napoleon,  had  not  been  forgotten  by  the  men  who  had 
lionized  him  at  Washington  when  it  began  to  be  whispered 
that  he  was  an  impostor.*  The  whispers  were  soon  confirmed 
by  positive  statements,  and  Madison,  the  Secretaries,  and  so- 
ciety learned  with  deep  mortification  that  no  such  person  as 
Count  Edward  was  known  to  the  Crillon  family ;  that  no  such 
officer  was  known  in  the  army  of  France ;  that  no  such  estate 
as  that  of  St.  Martial  "  in  Lebeur  near  the  Spanish  border " 
existed ;  and  that  the  man  on  whom  Crillon  drew  his  drafts  in 
favor  of  Henry  had  been  dead  five  years.  It  remained,  how- 
ever, for  posterity  to  discover  that  the  pretended  count  was  in 
reality  a  secret  agent  of  the  French  police. 

That  the  documents  produced  no  result   proportional  to 
the  sum  they  cost  is  certain ;  f  that  the  war  spirit  was  in  any 

*  Columbian  Centinel,  June  3,  1812. 

f  By  a  unanimous  vote,  the  House  sent  the  letters  to  the  Committee  on  For- 
eign Relations.  The  committee  examined  Crillon,  and  reported.  The  report  was 
laid  on  the  table.  Annals  of  Congress,  1811-'12,  pp.  1220-1224.  The  Senate 


448  THE   STRUGGLE  FOR  PEACE.  CHAP,  xxi 

degree  roused ;  that  the  spring  elections  were  affected ;  that 
the  legislation  which  followed  was  at  all  produced  by  these 
publications  may  reasonably  be  doubted.  The  cries  of  "  Brit- 
ish intrigue,"  "  British  party,"  "British  gold,"  "British  agents," 
were  as  old  as  the  days  of  John  Jay's  treaty  and  Lord  Dor- 
chester's speech  to  the  Indians.  Nothing  which  Henry  had 
to  tell  began  to  be  as  damaging  to  the  Federalists  as  the  scores 
of  essays  with  which  their  newspapers  in  New  England  had 
abounded  for  ten  years  past,  and  which  had  been  suffered  to  go 
unnoticed.  The  time  had  come  when  the  question  of  war  or 
peace  depended  quite  as  much  on  the  President  as  on  Congress 
or  the  people.  In  a  few  months,  at  the  utmost,  a  successor  to 
Madison  must  be  nominated.  Should  the  choice  of  the  caucus 
fall  on  a  man  strongly  in  favor  of  the  system  of  Jefferson,  the 
system  of  embargoes,  commercial  restrictions,  peaceful  coercion 
but  not  war,  the  ardor  of  Congress  would  cool  rapidly,  and 
the  "  war-hawks  "  would  be  forced  to  give  up  all  hope  of  suc- 
cess. The  wish  of  a  large  part  of  the  Republican  party  was 
that  Madieon  should  succeed  himself.  But  that  Madison  was 
for  war  was  doubtful.  Many  an  honest  follower  of  his  could 
not  believe  that  he  was  in  earnest ;  could  not  believe  that  he 
would  plunge  the  country  in  a  contest  with  England  before  a 
dollar  had  been  raised,  a  soldier  enlisted,  or  a  ship  made  ready 
for  sea.  To  remove  this  doubt  was  all-important  to  Clay,  and 
the  story  runs  that  he  and  a  number  of  friends  waited  on 
Madison,  threatened  to  forsake  him  in  the  caucus,  and  thus 
coerced  him  into  war.*  That  the  story  is  true  cannot  be  posi- 
tively stated.  It  was  indeed  openly  repeated  in  Congress,  f 
A  member  of  the  House  even  claimed  to  have  been  one  of 
those  who  made  the  threat.  £  It  is  certain  that  Clay  did  place 
before  Monroe  a  plan  of  action  which  he  wished  the  adminis- 
tration to  follow.*  It  is  certain  that  the  plan  was  followed. 

called  on  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  names  of  the  persons  alluded  to  by  Henry, 
was  told  that  the  Secretary  did  not  have  them,  and  ordered  the  answer  printed. 
Ibid.,  p.  169. 

*  Hildreth's  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  vi,  p.  298. 

f  Speech  of  Hanson,  of  Maryland.     Annals  of  Congress,  1813-'14,  p.  254. 
J  James  Fisk,  of  Vermont.     The  Statesman's  Manual,  Edwin  Williams,  vol.  i, 
p.  848. 

*  Monroe's  Correspondence,  March  15,  1812. 


1812.  SHIPS  BUKNED  BY  THE  FRENCH.  449 

It  is  certain  that  no  caucus  met  till,  by  following  it,  Madison 
had  fully  committed  himself  to  war,  and  it  is  certain  that  in 
the  caucus  the  war  members  gave  him  a  warm  support.  Yet 
all  this  does  not  prove  that  Madison  was  coerced. 

The  plan  proposed  by  Clay  was  an  embargo  for  thirty  days, 
and  then  a  declaration  of  war  if,  meanwhile,  good  news  did  not 
come  from  England.  Though  Madison  was  ready  to  make  an 
appeal  to  arms,  he  was  not  willing  to  accept  an  embargo.  For 
a  year  past  he  had  boldly  asserted  that  the  Berlin  and  Milan 
decrees  were  repealed,  and  that  the  United  States  was  bound  by 
a  contract  to  trade  with  France.  A  general  embargo  meant  the 
stopping  of  this  trade,  meant  the  placing  of  France  on  the  same 
footing  with  England,  and  must,  in  the  eyes  of  the  President, 
have  been  a  flagrant  violation  of  his  pretended  contract.  But 
his  scruples  were  now  removed  by  France.  On  the  ninth  of 
March  an  American  brig  called  the  Thames,  from  Portugal, 
reached  New  Haven,  where  her  captain,  Samuel  Chew,  ap- 
peared before  a  notary  and  made  a  statement  under  oath.  He 
swore  that  about  the  middle  of  January,  1812,  he  set  sail  from 
St.  Ubes  for  New  Haven  with  a  cargo  of  salt  and  fruit,  and  that 
when  a  fortnight  out  he  fell  in  with  a  French  squadron  of  two 
frigates  and  a  sloop-of-war.  The  boarding-officer  informed 
him  the  squadron  had  left  Nantes  early  in  January  with  orders 
to  burn  American  ships  trading  with  an  enemy's  ports ;  that,  in 
obedience  to  these  orders,  the  ship  Asia,  from  Philadelphia  to 
Lisbon,  and  the  brig  Gershom,  from  Boston  to  Oporto,  both 
laden  with  flour  and  corn,  had  been  burned  at  sea ;  and  that  the 
Thames  should  meet  the  same  fate  on  the  morrow.  In  the 
course  of  the  night  the  French  commodore  changed  his  mind, 
and  on  the  morrow  sent  the  crews  of  the  Asia  and  the  Ger- 
shom  on  board  the  Thames,  gave  Captain  Chew  a  document 
written  in  French,  and  dismissed  him.  The  crews  were  landed 
at  St.  Bartholomew's,  but  the  document  and  the  sworn,  state- 
ment Chew  sent  to  Washington,  where,  on  the  twenty-fourth  of 
March,  Timothy  Pitkin,  Jr.,  read  them  to  the  House  of  Kepre- 
sentatives.  To  maintain  the  fiction  of  a  repeal  of  the  decrees 
was  now  impossible.  Not  a  man  in  the  whole  country  would 
believe  it.  Longing  to  be  revenged  for  the  exposure  of  the 
Henry  letters,  the  Federalist  press  set  upon  the  administration 
TOL.  nr. — 30 


450  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  PEACE.  CHAP,  xxi, 

with  taunts,  jeers,  and,  what  was  worse,  with  new  affidavits 
from  captains  whose  ships  had  been  burned  by  the  French. 
Should  these  acts  of  piracy  go  on,  war  with  France  would  be 
inevitable.  But  the  only  way  to  stop  them  was  to  keep  Amer- 
ican ships  at  home,  and  to  keep  American  ships  at  home  there 
must  be  an  embargo.  The  measure  which,  when  Clay  marked 
out  his  policy,  had  seemed  dangerous,  thus  came  to  seem  neces- 
sary, and  Monroe,  having  sent  for  the  Committee  on  Foreign 
Relations,  informed  them  *  that  Madison  was  ready  to  recom- 
mend an  embargo  if  the  House  would  give  it  support,  f  The 
committee  answered  that  the  House  would  support  it,  and  on 
April  first  the  secret  message  arrived,  recommending  a  general 
embargo  for  sixty  days.  Petei  B.  Porter  brought  in  the  bill ; 
Clay  made  a  strong  appeal  in  its  behalf ;  the  majority  cut  off 
debate  with  the  previous  question,  and,  rushing  the  bill  through 
all  its  stages,  passed  it  at  nine  that  night.  ^  As  the  Senate  was 
about  to  begin  business  the  next  forenoon  two  members  of  the 
House  appeared,  delivered  it  to  the  Yice-President,  and  asked 
for  instant  action.  Instant  action  was  taken,  and  on  the  follow- 
ing morning  two  senators  carried  back  the  bill  with  two  amend- 
ments to  the  House  ?  *  And  now  the  peace  party  made  one 
more  desperate  struggle  for  peace,  and  carried  the  Senate  amend- 
ment extending  the  embargo  to  ninety  days.  All  manner  of  rea- 
sons were  given.  J  Some  were  anxious  that  the  ships  of  con- 
stituents might  be  brought  home  before  the  war  began.  Some 
were  eager  to  put  off  war.  Some  wanted  time  for  negotia- 
tion. Had  the  wishes  of  these  men  prevailed,  James  A.  Bay- 
ard would  have  been  despatched  to  London,  would  have  laid 
an  ultimatum  before  the  Prince  Regent,  and  the  war  for  com- 
mercial independence  would  never  have  been  fought.  This 
scheme  Clay  defeated,  and  on  the  fourth  of  April  the  embargo 
began. 

Though  the  debates  had  gone  on  with  closed  doors,  it  was 

*  March  31,  1812. 

t  Speech  of  John  Randolph,  April  1,  1812.     Annals  of  Congress,  1811-'12, 
p.  1593. 

$  April  1,  1812. 

*  April  3,  1812. 

J  Madison  to  Jefferson,  April  24,  1812.     Madison's  Writings,  vol.  ii,  p.  632. 


1812.  THE  EMBARGO.  451 

no  secret  that  an  embargo  was  soon  to  be  laid.  For  ten  days 
past  it  was  matter  of  public  notoriety  that  a  caucus  had  been 
held  at  Washington  to  discuss  a  declaration  of  war ;  that  the 
members  from  New  York  and  "New  Jersey  had  bitterly  op- 
posed such  a  measure ;  that  a  compromise  had  been  effected, 
and  the  agreement  reached  that,  when  the  New  England  elec- 
tion was  over,  an  embargo  should  be  laid  on  ships  and  com- 
merce.* Many  thought  the  rumor  without  foundation.  But 
the  Baltimore  merchants  were  so  well  informed  that  the  enor- 
mous shipments  they  made  of  flour  attracted  newspaper  com- 
ment, f  So  openly  and  so  positively  was  the  assertion  made  that 
John  Randolph,  happening  to  be  in  Baltimore,  heard  it  and  has- 
tened back  to  Washington,  for,  as  a  member  of  the  Committee 
on  Foreign  Relations,  the  report  concerned  him  deeply.  At 
"Washington  he  soon  learned  that  the  rumor  was  true.  But 
when  the  committee  decided  to  recommend  an  embargo,  and  an 
attempt  was  made  to  pledge  the  members  to  secrecy,  Randolph 
refused  to  be  bound.  The  committee,  he  held,  had  no  power 
to  lay  injunctions  to  secrecy.  Even  if  they  had,  it  would  do  no 
good.  To  his  knowledge,  the  people  of  Baltimore  already  knew 
that  an  embargo  was  coming.  This  statement  induced  Calhoun, 
the  moment  the  committee  rose  on  March  thirty-first,  to  inform 
Quincy,  Lloyd,  and  Emott,  in  order  that  one  commercial  city 
might  not  be  more  favored  than  others.  By  Quincy  and 
Emott  an  express  was  instantly  sent  eastward.  On  April  first 
he  reached  Philadelphia  ^  and  showed  the  despatch  to  John 
Milnor,  a  Pennsylvania  member  then  in  the  city.  On  April 
second  the  news  reached  New  York,  where  in  a  few  hours 
flour  went  lip  one  dollar  a  barrel  and  freight  twenty  per  cent. 
In  three  days'  time  seventy  ships  had  been  loaded,  cleared,  and 
were  out  of  sight  of  Sandy  Hook.*  By  the  almanacs  of  that 
day  the  post-road  distance  from  Washington  to  Boston  was  four 
hundred  and  ninety-six  miles.  Yet  this  great  space  was  cov- 
ered in  seventy-six  hours. 

*  Wilmington  Statesman,  March,  1812.     Copied  in  True  American,  March  26, 
1812. 

f  Baltimore  Federal  Republican,  March  25,  1812. 
|  True  American,  April  2,  1812. 

*  Commercial  Advertiser,  April  8,  1812. 


452  THE  STKUGGLE  FOR  PEACE.  CHAP.  xxi. 

"Within  the  next  eight-and-forty  hours  eighty-five  ships  left 
port.  Some  got  off  without  hindrance,  but  twenty  were  de- 
tained by  bad  weather  and  head-winds  in  the  outer  bay  till 
news  of  the  passage  of  the  law  reached  the  Collector.  Signals 
were  instantly  hoisted  on  Fort  Hill ;  but  the  weather  was  thick, 
the  warnings  could  not  be  seen,  and,  before  the  captains  were 
aware  of  the  danger,  a  revenue  cutter  was  upon  them  demand- 
ing their  sea-papers.  Some  slipped  their  cables  and  went  out 
despite  the  fog.  More  than  half  were  detained. 

For  a  moment  the  gravity  of  the  situation  was  lost  sight 
of.  The  news  had  come  in  the  closing  hours  of  the  most  ex- 
citing campaign  that  had  ever  yet  taken  place  in  Massachu- 
setts. A  year  of  complete  Republican  control  had  almost 
produced  a  social  revolution.  By  one  law  the  inferior  courts 
were  reorganized ;  by  another,  the  right  to  divert  parish  taxes 
from  the  Congregational  minister  to  any  other  was  secured  to 
the  tax-payer ;  by  another,  the  franchise  was  extended,  and  the 
property  qualification,  which  had  existed  since  1692,  was  ruth- 
lessly swept  away.  Any  man  could  now  vote  for  town  offi-, 
cers  who  was  twenty-one  years  old  and  had  lived  one  year  in 
the  town.  In  all  other  town  affairs  he  could  have  a  vote  if  he 
had  paid  a  poll-tax.  But  the  two  laws  which  set  the  State 
aflame  were  the  Districting  Act  and  the  act  which  made  the 
pay  of  the  representative  a  charge  on  the  State  Treasury. 

Provision  was  made  by  the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts 
for  forty  senators  to  be  chosen  by  the  people  of  such  districts 
as  the  General  Court  should  mark  out.  In  using  this  power 
the  General  Court  was  to  make  not  less  than  thirteen  districts, 
nor  give  more  than  six  senators  to  any  one.  Just  how  many 
any  district  should  have  was  to  depend  on  the  proportion  of 
public  taxes  that  district  paid.  Until  the  General  Court  or- 
dered otherwise,  the  Constitution  further  provided  that  each 
one  of  the  thirteen  counties  of  the  State  should  be  a  senatorial 
district.  As  other  counties  were  formed  this  principle  of  mak- 
ing each  county  a  district  was  not  departed  from,  and  what  was 
a  temporary  provision  became  an  established  usage  with  all  the 
force  of  law.  This  usage  the  Republicans  now  laid  hands  on 
and  destroyed.  At  last,  after  years  of  persistent  effort,  they 
controlled  the  Senate.  That  control  must  be  kept,  and  to 


1812.  MASSACHUSETTS  EEDISTKICTED.  453 

keep  it  they  rearranged  the  senatorial  districts  without  regard 
to  county  lines,  overcame  Federalist  strongholds  with  Republi- 
can strongholds,  cut  Worcester  County  in  two,  joined  Bristol 
and  Norfolk,  attached  some  of  the  towns  of  Suffolk  to  those 
of  Essex,  and  in  the  next  Senate  had  twenty-nine  senators  out 
of  forty.  The  thing  was  not  new  in  our  politics,  for  it  had 
some  years  before  been  tried  in  Virginia.* 

Having  pulled  down  one  time-honored  custom  in  order  to 
secure  the  Senate,  the  Republicans  pulled  down  another  to 
secure  the  House.  In  that  branch  of  the  Legislature  each  in- 
corporated town  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  ratable  polls  or 
less  sent  one  representative,  and  for  every  two  hundred  and 
twenty-five  ratable  polls  above  one  hundred  and  fifty,  one  repre- 
sentative more.  Expenses  incurred  in  going  to  and  coming 
from  the  General  Court  were  paid  out  of  the  State  Treasury, 
but  the  daily  pay  of  the  member  was  borne  by  the  town  that 
sent  him.  Should  a  town  fail  to  elect  its  delegates  because  of 
the  cost,  the  House  could  fine  it.  In  consequence  of  these 
tilings,  it  became  customary  for  the  poorer  and  smaller  towns 
to  elect  representatives,  send  them  to  the  General  Court,  have 
them  remain  till  government  was  organized,  and  then  come 
home.  As  many  of  these  little  places  were  Republican,  their 
votes  were  lost,  while  the  wealthy  commercial  towns,  strong- 
holds of  Federalism,  kept  up  a  full  delegation.  To  counteract 
this  a  law  was  passed  by  which  the  rich  Federalist  cities  were 
taxed  in  order  to  pay  the  salaries  of  delegates  from  the  poor 
Republican  towns.  In  other  words,  the  pay  of  members  of  the 
General  Court  was  made  a  charge  on  the  State  Treasury,  and 
the  money  needed  was  raised  by  increased  taxation.  In  1812 
the  sum  required  was  over  ninety-three  thousand  five  hundred 
dollars,  and,  as  apportioned  among  the  towns,  produced  some 
curious  contrasts.  Thus  in  the  town  of  Hull  there  were  thirty- 
two  ratable  polls.  Under  the  old  system  the  member  would 
probably  have  attended  for  a  f ews  days  and  no  more.  Under 
the  new  system  he  was  present  during  the  whole  session,  and 
received  as  salary  three  times  as  much  as  the  town  of  Hull 
paid  in  State  taxes.  Salem  was  entitled  to  twelve  members, 

*  Life  of  Patrick  Henry,  by  M.  C.  Tyler,  pp.  313-316. 


454  THE  STRUGGLE  FOE  PEACE.  OHAP.  xxr. 

yet  it  was  compelled  to  pay  a  sum  equal  to  the  compensation 
of  twenty-three  members.  The  share  of  Roxbury  was  seven 
hundred  and  thirty-two  dollars,  yet  the  cost  of  its  member 
the  year  previous  was  but  two  hundred  and  eighty-four  dol- 
lars. 

Innovations  such  as  the  Districting  Law  and  the  Salary  Law 
would  of  themselves  have  been  sufficient  to  make  the  campaign 
intensely  exciting.  But  the  two  candidates  for  Governor,  El- 
bridge  Gerry  and  Caleb  Strong,  had  hardly  been  nominated 
when  every  mail  from  Washington  and  every  ship  from  abroad 
brought  intelligence  more  and  more  exasperating.  The  new 
loan  of  eleven  millions ;  the  proposed  new  land-taxes,  excises, 
and  stamp  duties ;  the  story  of  the  orders  from  the  French 
admiralty  to  burn,  sink,  and  destroy  American  vessels ;  the 
deposition  of  Captain  Chew  that  the  burning  had  begun ;  the 
Henry  letters ;  and,  on  the  very  eve  of  the  election,  the  embargo, 
roused  the  people  and  brought  out  almost  every  voter  in  the 
State.  Never  had  there  been  such  an  election.  One  hundred 
and  four  thousand  votes  were  cast.  When  they  were  counted, 
Strong  was  found  to  have  sixteen  hundred  more  than  Gerry. 
Massachusetts  was  lost  to  Republicanism. 

The  exultation  over  the  result  of  the  elections  had  not  sub- 
sided when  the  Federalists  found  new  cause  for  rejoicing  in 
the  failure  to  place  the  eleven-million  loan.  Subscriptions 
were  opened  on  the  first  and  second  of  May  in  all  the  chief 
seaport  cities  from  Portsmouth  to  Charleston.  The  advertise- 
ment of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  the  comments 
by  the  newspapers  had  made  the  time  and  places  of  subscrip- 
tion well  known  to  everybody.  The  terms  were  thought  lib- 
eral. For  every  hundred  dollars  taken,  twelve  dollars  and  a 
half  were  to  be  paid  down,  and  a  like  sum  on  the  fifteenth  of 
each  month  from  June  to  December,  both  inclusive.  Six  per 
cent,  was  to  be  the  rate  of  interest,  and  twelve  years  the  term 
of  the  loan.  Republican  journals  vied  with  each  other  in  urg- 
ing the  people  to  subscribe,  to  be  liberal,  and  to  take  the  bonds 
with  the  same  eagerness  with  which  they  had  so  often  com- 
peted for  the  stock  of  banks,  turnpike  companies,  manufactur- 
ing companies,  and  companies  to  build  bridges.  When,  how- 
ever, the  books  were  closed  on  May  second,  not  quite  two 


1812.  THE  LOAN  NOT  TAKEN.  455 

millions  had  been  subscribed  by  the  people,*  and  but  a  little 
over  four  millions  by  the  banks,  f 

Small  as  was  the  amount  purchased  by  individuals,  it  was, 
when  judged  by  past  experience,  quite  large.  In  1796  one  half 
of  a  five-million  six-per-cent.  loan  was  offered  to  the  people 
without  one  dollar's  worth  being  taken  for  several  weeks.  Nor 
did  the  people  ever  buy  more  than  eighty  thousand  of  the  two 
and  a  half  millions  of  stock  offered  them.  Again,  in  1798,  a 
six-per-cent.  loan  was  advertised.  It  ought  to  have  been  popu- 
lar. Federalism  was  triumphant.  All  over  the  land  Feder- 
alists were  mounting  the  black  cockade,  associating,  enlisting, 
voting  addresses  to  Adams,  and  singing  their  national  songs. 
Millions  for  defence,  not  a  cent  for  tribute,  was  the  cry,  and 
this  money  was  to  be  spent  on  the  navy.  Yet  the  total 
amount  of  stock  subscribed  for  and  issued  was  but  a  trifle 
over  seven  hundred  thousand  dollars.  Now,  in  a  day  of  great 
financial  distress,  the  people  had  subscribed  almost  two  mill- 
ions. Nevertheless,  the  result  was  most  discouraging,  and 
carried  with  it  a  meaning  not  to  be  misunderstood.  In  New 
England  the  cry  had  been :  "  No  commerce — no  loan,"  "  Let 
those  who  want  war  pay  for  the  war,"  and  in  all  New  Eng- 
land, from  Eastport  to  the  New  York  border,  not  a  million 
was  obtained.  The  South  had  little  to  give ;  yet  from  that 
vast  region  between  the  Potomac  and  Florida  but  seven  hun- 
dred thousand  was  collected.  Failure  to  subscribe  in  New 
England  was  undoubtedly  largely  due  to  the  bitter  animosity 
felt  toward  the  administration  and  its  ways.  But  the  small 
amount  of  the  stock  taken  elsewhere  was  to  be  ascribed  to 
the  low  rate  of  interest,  to  the  great  number  of  banks  the 
people  had  formed  and  were  about  to  form,  and  to  the  large 
profits  they  expected  these  institutions  to  make  for  them. 

As  the  month  began,  so  it  went  on,  with  one  discourage- 
ment after  another,  to  the  close.  In  Massachusetts  the  Feder- 
alists carried  the  House  of  Representatives.  In  New  York 
they  secured  the  Assembly.  Regions  supposed  to  be  warmly 
Republican  broke  out  in  open  opposition  to  the  embargo  and 
besieged  Congress  with  petitions  for  its  repeal.  The  death  of 

*  $1,928,900.  t  $4,190,000. 


456  THE  STRUGGLE  FOE  PEACE.  CHAP.  xxi. 

the  Vice-President  late  in  April,  tlie  caucus  nomination  of 
Madison  and  Gerry  in  May,  and  the  excitement  in  the  wheat- 
growing  counties  of  New  York  over  the  embargo,  encouraged 
the  discontented  Republicans  to  defy  the  administration  and 
nominate  De  "Witt  Clinton  for  the  presidency.  Every  mail 
from  the  South  brought  news  of  warfare  on  the  Spanish 
border.  The  Hornet  came  back  from  France  without  evi- 
dence that  the  French  decrees  had  been  repealed,  and  the 
English  Minister  communicated  to  Monroe  renewed  assurances 
that  England  would  not  recall  her  orders. 

Congress  meantime  seemed  dazed.  The  warlike  spirit 
which  marked  the  opening  weeks  of  the  session  had  gone 
down.  Indeed,  it  was  with  the  utmost  difficulty  that  the  war 
party  could  prevent  the  House  from  agreeing  with  the  Senate 
to  take  a  recess  from  the  twenty-ninth  of  April  to  the  eighth 
of  June.  As  it  was,  many  of  the  members  went  home  on 
leave  with  the  understanding  that  no  measures  of  a  war  nature 
should  be  taken  during  the  month  of  May.*  As  the  month 
drew  to  a  close,  a  rumor  was  current  that  on  Monday,  the 
first  of  June,  the  House  would  be  asked  to  declare  war.  The 
rumor  was  well  founded,  and  about  noon  on  that  day  Madi- 
son's private  secretary  delivered  at  the  table  of  the  Speaker, 
and  at  the  table  of  the  President  pro  tempore  of  the  Senate, 
a  packet  the  contents  of  which,  he  said,  were  confidential. 
"Wlien  opened  and  read,  it  proved  to  be  the  long-expected  war 
message. 

Going  back  to  the  year  1803,  Madison  charged  Great 
Britain  with  a  course  of  conduct  insulting  to  the  independence 
and  neutrality  of  the  United  States,  and  arranged  her  hostile 
acts  in  four  classes.  Her  cruisers  had  violated  the  sanctity  of 
the  American  flag  on  the  great  highway  of  nations  by  seizing 
and  carrying  off  persons  sailing  under  it.  Her  cruisers  had 
violated  our  maritime  rights  by  hovering  on  our  coasts,  har- 
assing our  incoming  and  outgoing  ships,  and  wantonly  shed- 
ding the  blood  of  our  citizens.  She  had,  under  pretended 
blockades,  without  the  presence  of  ships-of-war  to  make  them 

*  On  May  13th  the  IIousc  passed  a  resolution  requesting  the  absentees  to  re- 
turn prior  to  June  1st. 


1812. 


THE  VOTE  ON  WAR. 


457 


valid,  plundered  our  commerce  in  every  sea.  She  had,  not 
content  with  these  occasional  expedients  for  ruining  our  trade, 
resorted  at  last  to  the  sweeping  system  of  blockades  known 
as  orders  in  council,  which  she  had  moulded  and  managed  as 
best  suited  her  politics,  her  commercial  jealousy,  or  the  avidity 
of  her  cruisers.  Whether  the  United  States  should  remain 
passive  under  these  progressive  usurpations,  or,  meeting  force 
with  force,  commit  a  just  cause  into  the  hands  of  the  Almighty 
Disposer  of  events,  was  a  solemn  question  which  the  Constitu- 
tion wisely  left  with  Congress.  In  urging  Congress  to  an  early 
decision,  he  did  so  in  the  happy  assurance  that,  be  the  decision 
what  it  might,  it  would  be  worthy  of  the  councils  of  a  virtuous, 
free,  and  powerful  people. 

Obedient  to  this  request,  the  House  acted  with  great  prompt- 
ness. On  the  third  of  June,  Calhoun,  for  the  Committee  on 
Foreign  Relations,  reported  in  favor  of  war,  and  on  the  fourth 
the  bill  making  the  declaration  reached  the  Senate. 

When  the  vote  cast  in  the  House  on  that  memorable  day 
is  examined,*  it  appears  that  not  a  representative  from  Ohio, 
Kentucky,  Tennessee,  South  Carolina,  or  Georgia  voted  for 
peace,  and  that  not  a  representative  from  Rhode  Island,  Cen- 
necticut,  or  Delaware  voted  for  war ;  that  in  Massachusetts, 

*  The  vote  in  the  House  of  Representatives  stood : 


NAME  OF  STATE. 

Members 
present 

Members 
absent. 

For  war. 

For  peace. 

New  Hampshire  

5 

3 

2 

Vermont  

4 

3 

1 

Massachusetts    

14 

3 

6 

g 

Rhode  Island    »  

2 

2 

Connecticut  

7 

7 

New  York  

14 

3 

3 

11 

New  Jersey  

6 

2 

I 

Delaware  

1 

1 

Pennsylvania             

18 

16 

2 

Maryland.  .  .                  

9 

6 

3 

Virginia            

19 

3 

14 

5 

North  Carolina  

9 

3 

6 

3 

South  Carolina  

8 

8 

3 

1 

3 

Ohio          

1 

1 

| 

5 

1 

5 

3 

3 

Total       

128 

14 

79 

49 

458 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  PEACE. 


CHAP.  XXI. 


New  York,  and  New  Jersey  the  majority  was  for  peace ; 
that  in  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  North  Carolina 
the  majority  was  for  war ;  that,  in  short,  the  Eastern  and  Mid- 
dle States,  with  two  exceptions,  were  against  war,  and  the 
Southern  and  Western  States  were  for  it. 

The  deliberations  of  the  Senate  consumed  two  weeks,  so  that 
it  was  not  till  the  eighteenth  of  June  that  the  act  was  passed 
and  approved  by  Madison.  On  June  nineteenth  the  proclama- 
tion was  issued.  As  the  riders  hurried  from  "Washington  to 
spread  the  news  throughout  the  land,  Madison  visited  the  de- 
partment of  war  and  of  the  navy,  "  stimulating  everything," 
said  one  who  saw  him,  "  in  a  manner  worthy  of  a  little  com- 
mander-in-chief,  with  his  little  round  hat  and  huge  cockade." 


Showing  in  Five  Degrees  of  Density  the 
Distribution  of  the 


POPULATION 

OF  THE 

UNITED  STATES 

EXCLUDING  INDIANS  NOT  TAXED. 


Compiled  from  the  Returns  of  Popula- 
tion at  the  Third  Census,  1810. 


NOTE. 
Centre  of  Population 


1812.  AEEA  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  459 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 

AFTER  nine-and-twenty  years  of  peace  the  people  of  the 
United  States  were  thus  a  second  time  at  war  with  Great 
Britain.  Before  attempting  to  narrate  the  events  of  that 
singular  struggle  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  describe  the  marvel- 
lous prosperity  which,  in  spite  of  French  decrees  and  British 
orders,  in  spite  of  embargoes,  in  spite  of  acts  of  non-inter- 
course and  acts  of  non-importation,  of  confiscations,  of  burn- 
ings, of  plunderings,  of  the  unwise  conduct  of  congresses, 
presidents,  and  legislatures,  had  during  these  nine-and-twenty 
years  been  built  up  by  the  thrift,  the  energy,  the  self-reliance 
of  the  people. 

Between  the  day  when  our  fathers  celebrated,  with  bon- 
fires and  with  bell-ringing,  the  return  of  peace,  and  the  day 
when,  discordant  and  disunited,  they  read  the  proclamation  re- 
newing war,  the  area  of  our  country  had  expanded  from  eight 
hundred  thousand  square  miles  to  over  two  millions ;  the  peo- 
ple had  increased  from  three  millions  and  a  quarter  to  seven 
millions  and  a  quarter ;  the  number  of  States,  from  thirteen  to 
eighteen  ;  and  five  Territories — political  divisions  unknown  in 
1783 — had  been  established.  Forty-nine  treaties  and  conven- 
tions had  been  made  with  the  Indians,  their  title  to  occu- 
pancy extinguished,  and  vast  stretches  of  country,  once  their 
hunting-grounds,  had  been  thrown  open  to  settlement,  and 
were  being  rapidly  covered  with  villages  and  with  farms. 
Had  a  line  been  drawn  around  the  frontier  in  1Y90,  it  would, 
judging  from  the  best  evidence  now  attainable,  have  been 
thirty-two  hundred  miles  in  length,  and  would  have  enclosed 
a  settled  area  of  two  hundred  and  forty  thousand  square  miles. 


460  ECONOMIC!  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxii. 

Had  a  similar  line  been  drawn  in  1812,  it  would  have  been 
but  twenty-nine  hundred  miles  long,  yet  it  would  have  en- 
closed a  settled  area  of  four  hundred  thousand  square  miles. 
The  frontier  line  now  ran  due  west  through  southern  Maine 
from  Eastport  to  the  head-waters  of  the  Connecticut  river, 
across  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont,  around  the  Adirondacks 
on  the  north  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  down  the  St.  Lawrence  and 
the  southern  shores  of  Lakes  Ontario  and  Erie  to  the  Cuyahoga 
river,  where  Cleveland  stood  and  the  Indian  boundary-line 
began.  Beyond  this  no  white  man  could  go  for  purposes  of 
settlement.  The  frontier  therefore  followed  the  Indian  bound- 
ary across  central  Ohio  and  eastern  Indiana  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Kentucky,  went  down  the  valley  of  the  Ohio  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi, up  that  river  to  the  Missouri  and  back  to  the  Ten- 
nessee, which  it  followed  to  its  source  in  the  mountains, 
crossed  the  mountains  to  their  eastern  slopes,  and,  heading  the 
waters  of  the  Santee  and  the  Savannah,  skirted  the  Altamaha 
to  the  sea.  Separated  from  the  frontier  by  great  tracts  of  wil- 
derness were  the  outlying  settlements  at  Detroit,  at  Michili- 
mackinac,  at  Green  Bay,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas  river, 
in  the  Territory  of  Mississippi,  and  in  the  new  State  of  Louisi- 
ana. Roughly  speaking,  four  fifths  of  the  whole  area  of  the 
United  States  had  not  a  white  settler  upon  it. 

The  region  whence  the  Western  settlers  came  was,  of  course, 
the  Atlantic  seaboard,  for  the  foreigners  who  each  year  landed 
on  our  shore  were  still  very  few  in  number.  Yet  it  must 
not  be  supposed  that  the  movement  of  people  from  the  At- 
lantic States  had  been  uniform  or  steady.  The  returns  of  the 
third  census  show  that  from  Rhode  Island,  from  New  Jersey, 
from  Delaware,  and  Maryland,  migration  had  almost  ceased, 
and  that  in  them  the  percentage  of  the  increase  of  population 
for  the  census  period  ending  in  1810  was  very  much  greater 
than  for  that  ending  in  1800.  From  Massachusetts  and  Con- 
necticut the  movement  had  been  steady,  and  no  material 
change  is  noticeable  in  their  percentages  at  the  two  periods. 
Elsewhere  the  migration  had  been  heavy,  and  had  gone  chiefly 
into  the  States  of  New  York,  Ohio,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee. 

In  entering  these  States  the  emigrants  had,  as  before, 
marched  forward  in  three  great  streams.  The  northern,  made 


1812.  WESTERN  MOVEMENT  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 

up  largely  of  people  from  New  England,  Pennsylvania,  and 
Maryland,  had  pushed  out  into  western  New  York,  and  had 
dotted  the  whole  region  from  Utica  to  Buffalo  with  towns 
and  villages.  In  1790  New  York,  from  a  meridian  *  through 
Seneca  Lake  westward  to  the  Canadian  boundary,  was  one  huge 
county,  f  Before  1812  that  same  region  had  been  cut  into 
seven.  In  1790  there  were  in  the  entire  State  but  sixteen 
counties.  In  1812  there  were  forty-five  counties,  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty-two  towns,  and  more  than  three  hundred  vil- 
lages of  at  least  thirty  families  each.  Buffalo  now  existed, 
and  Lewiston  and  Batavia,  and  Maysville  at  the  head  of 
Chautauqua  Lake.  The  town  of  Erie  had  been  founded  in 
Pennsylvania,  and  Cleveland  in  Ohio. 

The  second  stream  during  the  last  ten  years  had  poured 
down  the  Ohio  valley,  had  peopled  all  southern  Ohio,  had 
raised  Indiana  to  a  Territory  of  the  second  grade,  had  over- 
run Kentucky  and  Tennessee  to  the  Indian  boundary,  and, 
reaching  the  banks  of  Tennessee  river,  had  begun  to  push 
southward  into  what  is  now  Alabama.  The  third  stream  had 
gone  as  far  as  the  Altamaha  river,  where  the  Indian  country 
stopped  it.  • 

From  this  rush  of  people  into  the  new  country  came  eco- 
nomic consequences  of  a  most  serious  nature.  The  rapidity  of 
the  movement  and  the  vastness  of  the  area  covered  made  it  im- 
possible for  the  States  to  do  many  of  the  things  they  ought  to 
have  done  for  the  welfare  of  their  new  citizens.  The  heaviest 
taxes  that  could  have  been  laid  would  not  have  sufficed  to  cut 
out  half  the  roads,  or  build  half  the  bridges,  or  clear  half  the 
streams  necessary  for  easy  communication  between  the  new 
villages  and  for  successful  prosecution  of  trade  and  commerce. 

In  the  well-populated  parts  of  the  country  along  the  seaT" 
board  the  people  seemed  disposed  to  remedy  the  evil  them- 
selves, and  for  some  years  after  the  close  of  the  Revolution 
numbers  of  lotteries  were  started  to  build  bridges  and  improve 
roads.  This  was  noticeably  the  case  immediately  after  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution.  The  funding  of  the  Federal 

*  Beginning  at  the  eighty-second  mile-stone  on  the  Pennsylvania  line, 
f  Ontario. 


462  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

debt,  the  assumption  of  the  State  debts,  the  restoration  of  pub- 
lic credit,  called  out  from  their  hiding  places  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  dollars  nobody  supposed  existed.  Investments 
were  sought  in  every  direction.  Banks  were  opened,  canal 
companies  were  started,,  turnpike  companies  were  chartered, 
and  their  stock  subscribed  for  in  a  few  hours.  It  seemed  for 
a  time  that  internal  improvements  were  to  be  the  economic 
feature  of  the  last  years  of  the  century;  but  suddenly  the 
European  war  began.  France  opened  her  "West  Indies.  A 
/splendid  carrying  trade  sprang  up.  Money  was  instantly  di- 
>/  verted  to  ships  and  commerce,  and  many  a  plan  for  internal 
improvement  languished  and  was  abandoned.  But  the  move- 
ment of  the  people  westward  not  only  went  on,  but  went  on 
with  increasing  rapidity.  The  high  price  of  wheat,  of  corn, 
of  flour,  due  to  the  demand  for  exportation,  sent  thousands 
into  the  Genesee  country  and  the  borders  of  Lake  Champlain 
to  farm,  and  from  them  came  back  the  cry  for  better  means 
of  transportation.  The  people  of  the  shipping  towns  were 
quite  as  eager  to  get  the  produce  as  the  farmers  were  to  send 
it,  and  with  the  opening  of  the  century  the  old  rage  for  road- 
making,  river  improvements,  and  canals  revived.  The  States 
/  were  still  utterly  unable  to  meet  the  demand,  and  one  by  one 
were  forced  to  follow  the  policy  begun  by  Pennsylvania  in  1Y91 
and  spend  their  money  on  roads  and  bridges  in  the  sparsely 
settled  counties,  and,  by  liberal  charters  and  grants  of  tolls,  en- 
courage the  people  of  the  populous  counties  to  make  such  im- 
provements for  themselves.7  The  wisdom  of  this  policy  was 
apparent.  The  success  of  the  Lancaster  Pike  encouraged  it, 
and,  before  the  first  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  closed, 
most  of  the  landed  and  well-settled  States  were  voting  money, 
setting  apart  the  proceeds  of  land  sales,  or  establishing  lotteries 
I  to  open  roads  on  the  frontiers,  while  their  citizens  were  form- 
'  ing  stock  companies  to  do  the  same  thing  between  the  old  towns 
;  and  the  seaboard.  The  prospect  of  increasing  the  value  of  the 
back  lands  by  establishing  good  roads,  the  hope  of  great  divi- 
dends to  be  derived  from  the  tolls,  the  fascination  of  speculat- 
ing in  stock,  induced  scores  of  communities  to  risk  their  capital 
in  turnpike  ventures.JOnce  aroused,  the  rage  for  turnpiking 
spread  rapidly  over  the  whole  country.  In  a  few  years  a  sum 


1812.  TURNPIKES.  463 

almost  equal  to  the  domestic  debt  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution 
was  voluntarily  invested  by  the  people  in  the  stock  of  turnpike 
corporations.  By  1810,  twenty-six  had  been  chartered  in  Ver- 
mont and  more  than  twenty  in  New  Hampshire,  while  in  all  New 
England  the  number  was  upward  of  one  hundred  and  eighty. 
New  York  by  1811  had  chartered  one  hundred  and  thirty-seven. 
Their  combined  capital  was  over  seven  millions  and  a  half  of 
dollars.  Their  total  length  was  four  thousand  five  hundred 
miles,  of  which  fully  one  third  was  constructed.  Albany  re- 
sembled a  great  hub  from  which  eight  pikes  went  out  north, 
east,  south,  and  west.  Five  more  joined  the  villages  of  New- 
burg,  Kingston,  and  Catskill  on  the  Hudson  with  points  on 
the  Delaware  and  the  Susquehanna,  and  cut  off  some  of  the 
trade  which  would  otherwise  have  gone  to  Baltimore  and 
Philadelphia.  New  Jersey  had  chartered  thirty  roads.  Penn- 
sylvania had  given  letters-patent  to  thirty-three.  Maryland, 
in  the  hope  of  turning  aside  to  Baltimore  some  of  the  rich 
trade  which  came  down  from  the  Genesee  country  and  passed 
through  Carlisle  to  Philadelphia,  had  chartered  three  roads  to 
extend  from  Baltimore  to  points  on  the  Mason  and  Dixon 
line,  and  many  more  to  points  on  the  Potomac. 

Yet  even  this  did  little  to  remedy  the  evil.  The  cost  of 
transportation  was  enormous.  To  move  a  barrel  of  flour 
down  the  Susquehanna  from  the  Genesee  country  to  Columbia 
cost  twenty-five  cents.  To  send  it  thence  by  land  to  Philadel- 
phia, a  distance  of  seventy-four  miles,  cost  one  dollar.  To 
float  it  down  the  Susquehanna  from  Columbia  to  Frenchtown, 
at  the  head  of  the  Elk,  then  haul  it  over  the  peninsula  to 
the  Delaware,  and  so  to  Philadelphia,  cost  seventy-five  cents 
more.  Shippers  of  merchandise  from  the  Chesapeake  to  Phila- 
delphia paid  for  transportation  across  the  peninsula  from 
Frenchtown  to  Newcastle  rates  that  now  seem  extortionate. 
That  for  wheat  was  six  cents  per  bushel ;  that  for  flour  was 
twenty-five  cents  per  barrel ;  for  tobacco,  two  dollars  a  hogs- 
head ;  that  for  freight  in  general,  two  dollars  a  ton.  What 
little  freight  went  from  New  York  to  Lewiston,  almost  en- 
tirely a  water  route,  paid  forty  dollars  a  ton,  with  tolls  extra. 
To  haul  a  ton  from  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburg,  an  all-land 
route,  cost  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars.  Had  flour 


464:  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

been  sent  over  this  route  at  the  same  rate  per  mile  that  was 
paid  in  carrying  it  from  Columbia,  the  charges  on  each  barrel 
would  have  been  five  dollars.  To  move  a  bushel  of  salt  three 
hundred  miles  over  any  road  cost  two  dollars  and  a  half.  For 
wagoning  one  hundred-weight  of  sugar  three  hundred  miles 
the  tariff  was  five  dollars.  Taking  the  country  through,  it 
may  be  said  that  to  transport  goods,  wares,  or  merchandise 
cost  ten  dollars  per  ton  per  hundred  miles.  Articles  which 
could  not  stand  these  rates  were  shut  from  market,  and  among 
these  were  grain  and  flour,  which  could  not  bear  transporta- 
tion more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles.  The  cause  of 
these  rates  were  the  terrible  state  of  the  roads  and  the  high 
rate  of  tolls.  Four  horses  at  least  were  necessary  to  drag  a 
wagon  loaded  with  two  tons  any  distance.  For  such  a  wagon 
the  toll  in  New  England  was,  on  the  average,  twelve  and  a  half 
cents  for  each  two  miles.  In  'New  Jersey  one  cent  per  mile 
for  each  horse  was  exacted.  In  Pennsylvania  the  rate  of  toll 
depended  on  the  width  of  the  tire  of  the  wheels  and  the  num- 
ber of  the  horses,  and  varied  from  one  sixteenth  of  a  dollar  to 
two  cents  per  horse  for  each  ten  miles.  Maryland  used  the 
same  rates.  On  the  Manchester  turnpike  in  Virginia  the  rate 
for  a  loaded  wagon  was  twenty-five  cents  for  twelve  miles. 

Long  carriage  at  such  tariffs,  so  far  as  many  products  were 
concerned,  was  simply  prohibitory.  Flour,  grain,  corn,  pro- 
duce in  general,  was  therefore  forced  to  find  a  market  some- 
where within  a  radius  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles.  The 
consequence  was  that  as  the  States  bordering  on  Canada  became 
populated  they  turned  to  Quebec  and  Montreal  for  a  market, 
and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars'  worth  of  lumber,  grain, 
flour,  and  potash  were  every  year  shipped  down  the  St.  Law- 
rence instead  of  down  the  Hudson  or  the  Susquehanna.  The 
channels  of  trade  opened  by  the  smugglers  in  the  embargo  days 
had  never  been  closed.  They  had  indeed  been  most  carefully 
improved,  and  by  1812  the  trade  of  northern  New  Hamp- 
shire, Vermont,  and  New  York  was  in  the  hands  of  England. 
One  half  of  the  fur  trade  of  the  Northwest,  all  the  produce  of 
Vermont  as  far  south  as  Middlebury,  and  of  every  county  of 
northern  New  York  from  Essex  and  Clinton  on  Lake  Cham- 
plain  to  Niagara  on  the  Niagara  River,  was  gathered  at  Mont- 


1812.  COST   OF  TEANSPOETATION.  465 

real.  The  gazettes  of  Albany  contained  many  advertisements 
of  the  rates  of  transportation.  A  barrel  of  flour  could  be  car- 
ried from  Ogdensburg  to  Montreal  for  eighty-eight  cents, 
from  Salina  one  dollar,  from  Cayuga  a  dollar  and  a  half,  and 
the  same  from  Buffalo.  As  English  goods  came  into  Canada 
duty  free,  the  cheapness  with  which  they  could  be  obtained 
formed  another  incentive  to  continue  this  trade,  and  the  two 
sections  of  New  York,  no  longer  connected  commercially, 
seemed  in  a  fair  way  to  be  some  day  disconnected  politically. 

What  was  true  of  New  York  was  doubly  and  trebly  true 
of  the  whole  country.  The  time  had  come  when  the  great 
geographical  sections  of  this  country  must  be  united,  if  they  , 
were  to  be  united  at  all,  by  something  stronger  than  the  Con-  K 
stitution.  No  one  who  studies  the  history  of  those  interesting 
times  .can  fail  to  be  struck  with  the  utter  want  of  anything  ap- 
proaching to  a  national  feeling.  Slowly  but  surely  the  sections 
were  developing  local  interest  and  drawing  farther  and  farther 
apart.  The  economic  question  of  the  hour  was  plainly  how  to 
counteract  this  tendency  by  a  system  of  interstate  commerce 
which  should  unite  them  with  a  firm  bond  of  self-interest. 
That  Congress  had  power  to  regulate  commerce  between  the 
States  was  not  disputed ;  but  how  far  it  could  go  in  regulating 
the  highways  of  commerce  was  yet  to  be  settled. 

Since  the  beginning  of  government  under  the  Constitution, 
demands  for  internal  improvements  at  public  expense  had  often 
been  made  on  Congress  There  had  been  calls  for  more  piers 
in  the  Delaware  below  Philadelphia ;  for  piers  in  the  Merri- 
mac  at  Newburyport ;  for  piers  in  Barnstable  Bay ;  for  the 
removal  of  sand-bars  at  the  mouth  of  Christiana  Creek ;  for 
the  removal  of  shoals  in  Nantucket  Harbor;  for  a  bridge 
across  the  Potomac ;  for  a  canal  in  the  city  of  "Washington ;  for 
a  canal  around  the  falls  of  the  Ohio ;  for  a  survey  of  the  rivers 
of  Louisiana ;  for  help  to  finish  the  Alleghany  Turnpike,  the 
Highland  Turnpike,  the  Chesapeake  and  Delaware  Canal  •;  and 
to  publish  a  map  of  the  coast  of  Georgia. 

The  petitioners  in  the  matter  of  the  survey  of  the  Georgia 
coast  were  three  men  named  Parker,  Hopkins,  and  JMeers. 
They  had,  so  the  memorial  informed  the  House,  made  a  care- 
ful survey  of  the  coast  and  inland  navigation  of  Georgia  and 
VOL.  in. — 31. 


466  ECONOMIC   STATE   OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xm. 

South  Carolina.  The  cost  had  been  greater  than  they  could 
bear.  Their  funds  were  gone,  and,  lest  the  work  should  be 
lost,  they  asked  for  money  to  engrave  a  map.  The  committee 
having  the  memorial  in  charge  at  first  reported  in  favor  of  a 
loan  of  money.  But  this  was  so  seriously  opposed  that  the  re- 
port was  disagreed  to  and  a  new  one  submitted.  The  whole 
coast,  the  committee  now  said,  from  Florida  to  Chesapeake 
Bay,  had  never  been  surveyed  with  the  degree  of  accuracy  its 
importance  to  commerce  and  navigation  demanded.  Georgia 
in  particular  was  almost  unknown.  Her  harbors  were  numer- 
ous. Great  quantities  of  lumber,  ship-timber,  indigo,  rice, 
cotton,  and  tobacco  went  out  from  her  ports  each  year.  Yet 
her  inland  navigation  had  never  been  explored,  nor  the  shift- 
ing of  her  bars  and  channels  observed  with  accuracy.  North 
Carolina  and  South  Carolina  were  perhaps  better  known  to  our 
own  sailors ;  but  they,  too,  had  never  been  carefully  mapped, 
and,  as  many  a  shipwreck  proved,  were  dangerous  and  terrible 
to  strangers.  That  accurate  charts,  with  the  soundings,  the 
appearance  of  the  land,  the  entrance  to  the  harbors,  the  chan- 
nels of  inland  navigation,  all  carefully  marked  on  them,  would 
be  of  great  public  utility  was  not  to  be  disputed.  That  the 
preparation  of  them  ought  to  be  encouraged  was  certain  ;  for 
how  could  the  public  wealth  be  better  used  than  in  promoting 
undertakings  which  tended  to  increase  the  sources  whence 
that  wealth  flowed  ?  The  committee  felt  justified,  therefore, 
in  urging  that  the  President  should  be  authorized  to  secure 
from  individuals  complete  and  well-made  charts  of  the  coast 
from  St.  Mary's  river  to  Chesapeake  Bay ;  that  the  revenue 
cutters,  when  practicable,  should  be  employed  in  making  such 
surveys  as  could  not  be  purchased  from  individuals,  and  that, 
when  the  survey  of  the  coast  of  each  State  was  finished,  the 
charts  should  be  published.* 

All  admitted  that  the  plan  was  commendable ;  yet  so  little 
interest  was  taken  that  the  business  was  not  again  considered 
till  the  next  session,  when  two  reports  were  made.f  During 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  179t-'95.  House  of  Representatives,  February  27, 
1795. 

f  Annals  of  Congress,  1795-'96.  House  of  Representatives,  December  29, 
1795,  and  May  14,  1796. 


1806.  COAST   SUEVEY.  467 

the  interval  tlie  plan  had  greatly  developed.  Parker,  Hop- 
kins, and  Meers  had  begun  by  asking  for  three  thousand  dollars 
to  engrave  maps  of  the  Georgia  coast  from  St.  Mary's  river 
to  Savannah.  The  Committee  on  Commerce  and  Manufact- 
ures now  recommended  that  every  bay,  sound,  harbor,  and 
inlet  of  the  whole  Atlantic  coast  should  be  surveyed  and 
mapped.  If  well-made  charts  of  any  part  of  the  coast  could 
be  had  from  individuals,  the  President  was  to  buy  them.  If 
not  obtainable,  the  President  was  to  employ  surveyors  to  make 
them,  and  use  the  revenue  cutters  where  necessary.  The  end 
of  the  session  was  so  near  when  this  report  was  read  that  con- 
sideration was  put  off  till,  as  it  was  supposed,  Congress  should 
meet  again.  But  Congress  met  and  adjourned  many  times, 
and  six  years  slipped  by  before  the  House  once  more  took 
action  on  a  coast  survey.  An  act  was  then  passed  providing 
for  the  erection  of  a  number  of  light-houses.  Some  of  them 
were  to  be  on  Long  Island  Sound,  and,  that  the  sites  for 
them  might  be  the  better  determined,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  was  bidden  to  employ  fit  persons  to  survey  the 
Sound.*  The  result  was  a  fine  chart,  which  ought  to  have 
encouraged  Congress  to  go  on  with  the  work  so  well  begun. 
This,  indeed,  it  seems  to  have  done  ;  for,  almost  precisely  four 
years  later,  the  Secretary  was  instructed  by  two  other  acts  to 
have  careful  surveys  made  of  the  shores  of  Orleans  Territory 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  to  Yermilion  Bay,f  and  of 
the  coast  of  North  Carolina  from  Cape  Fear  to  Cape  Hat- 
teras.  ^  In  presenting  the  bill  for  the  Carolina  survey  the 
committee  expressed  an  earnest  hope  that  Congress  would  not 
let  the  next  session  pass  without  ordering  a  complete  survey 
of  the  coast  from  the  St.  Croix  to  the  Mississippi,  and  along 
the  Gulf  to  the  westernmost  confines  of  Louisiana.  *  The  wish 
was  fully  realized.  The  next  session  did  not  close  without  just 
such  a  law  as  the  committee  wanted,  and  on  February  tenth, 

1807,  Jefferson  signed  the  bill  which  founded  the  coast  survey. 
Fifty  thousand  dollars  were  set  apart  for  surveys  and  charts 
on  which,  the  law  especially  provided,  should  be  put  down  not 

*  Act  of  April  6,  1802.      f  Act  of  April  20,  1806.      \  Act  of  April  10,  1806. 

*  Report  of  the  Committee  on  Commerce  and  Manufactures,  February  27, 
1806. 


468  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

merely  the  shore  line,  but  all  the  islands,  shoals,  roads,  places 
of  anchorage  within  twenty  leagues  of  our  coast,  together  with 
the  courses  and  distances  between  the  chief  capes  and  head- 
lands. 

The  time  chosen  for  beginning  this  noble  work  was  most 
opportune,  for  there  was  then  in  the  presidential  chair  a  man 
who  truly  appreciated  the  importance  of  the  undertaking,  and 
at  the  head  of  the  Treasury  department  a  man  whose  powers 
of  organization  and  administration  were  not  second  to  those  of 
Hamilton.  Acting  together,  these  two  men  drew  up  a  plan 
for  the  survey,  and  sent  it  for  criticism  to  seven  men  whose 
opinions  were  worth  considering.  One  was  Robert  Patterson, 
director  of  the  Mint.  Another  was  Andrew  Ellicott,  who,  after 
serving  on  many  surveys  of  great  importance,  then  filled  the 
post  of  Secretary  of  the  Land  Office  of  Pennsylvania.  Ferdi- 
nand Rudolph  Hassler,  a  mathematician  of  note,  was  the  third. 
John  Garnett,  Isaac  Briggs,  Rev.  James  Madison,  president  of 
"William  and  Mary  College,  and  Joshua  Moore,  of  the  Treasury 
Department,  made  up  the  seven.  As  submitted  to  these  men, 
the  plan  consisted  of  three  parts  :  A  number  of  headlands,  of 
capes,  of  prominent  light-houses,  of  remarkable  features  along 
the  coast,  and  the  entrance  to  the  chief  harbors  were  to  be  se- 
lected and  their  latitudes  and  longitudes  determined  astronomi- 
cally. There  was  to  be  a  trigonometrical  survey  to  connect 
these  points,  and  a  hydrographical  survey  to  determine  the 
channels,  bars,  shoals,  and  depth  of  water  off  the  coast  and  in 
the  bays,  sounds,  and  harbors.  If  this  plan  seemed  practical, 
the  men  consulted  were  asked  to  name  persons  fitted  to  carry 
out  the  work.*  The  answers  were  so  satisfactory  that,  by  the 
fall  of  1807,  Patterson,  Hassler,  and  Briggs  were  at  work  se- 
lecting the  instruments  to  be  used,  and  making  ready  the  de- 
tails of  the  survey.  Instruments  of  the  kind  and  degree  of 
accuracy  needed  could  not  then  be  had  in  the  United  States. 
Hassler  was  therefore  ordered  to  proceed  to  England  and  super- 
intend their  manufacture  in  London.  But  before  he  could  start 
the  embargo  was  laid,  the  restrictive  system  followed,  and 
August,  1811,  came  ere  he  set  sail.  The  war  opened  soon 

*  Albert  Gallatin  to  Robert  Patterson  and  others,  March  25,  1807. 


1806.  THE   CUMBERLAND   ROAD.  469 

after,  so  that  it  was  not  till  November,  1815,  that  he  reached 
the  United  States  and  delivered  a  great  collection  of  mathe- 
matical books  and  mathematical  instruments  to  the  director 
of  the  Mint  at  Philadelphia. 

While  thus  assisting  commerce  by  sea,  Congress  was  not 
unmindful  of  the  needs  of  commerce  by  land.  To  such  a 
course,  indeed,  it  was  pledged  by  the  solemn  compact  made 
with  Ohio.  "When  that  State  was  about  to  enter  the  Union, 
her  people  agreed  that  public  lands  sold  within  her  borders 
should  not  be  taxed  for  five  years  after  the  day  of  sale.  In 
return  for  this,  Congress  agreed  to  spend  five  per  cent,  of 
the  net  proceeds  of  such  sales  in  road-making.  Some  of 
the  roads  were  to  be  in  the  State,  others  were  to  join  the 
Ohio  river  with  navigable  waters  emptying  into  the  Atlan- 
tic. As  three  per  cent,  was  speedily  appropriated  for  road- 
making  within  the  State,*  but  two  per  cent,  was  left  to  be 
expended  on  highways  without.  Yet,  small  as  the  percentage 
was,  it  had,  by  December,  1805,  produced  twelve  thousand  six 
hundred  dollars,  f  A  Senate  committee  was  then  appointed 
to  consider  the  best  manner  of  using  it,  and  reported  in  favor 
of  a  road  from  Cumberland,  on  the  Maryland  side  of  the 
Potomac,  to  a  point  near  Wheeling,  on  the  Virginia  side  of 
the  Ohio.  This  route,  the  committee  were  careful  to  state, 
was  chosen  from  among  several  because  it  seemed  best  suited 
to  the  present  needs  of  the  people  of  Ohio,  and  because,  start- 
ing at  Cumberland,  on  the  eastern  slopes  of  the  mountains,  it 
would  not  interfere  with  systems  of  internal  improvements 
then  being  carried  on  by  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland.:}:  No 
fault  was  to  be  found  with  the  location  of  the  road,  and,  as 
the  money  was  lying  idle  in  the  Treasury,  a  bill  to  regulate 
the  laying  out  and  making  of  a  road  from  Cumberland  to  the 
State  of  Ohio  readily  passed  both  Houses  and  became  law.* 
Thirty  thousand  dollars  were  appropriated  for  beginning  the 

*  Act  of  March  3,  1803. 

f  The  fund  began  to  accumulate  on  July  1,  1803.  'Between  that  date  and 
September  30,  1805,  inclusive,  the  net  proceeds  of  land  sales  in  Ohio  was  $632,- 
604.27,  two  per  cent,  of  which  was  $12,652. 

|  Report  of  the  committee  communicated  to  the  Senate,  December  19,  1805. 

*  March  29,  1806. 


470  ECONOMIC   STATE   OF   THE  PEOPLE.       CHAP.  xxir. 

work.  Three  commissioners  were  appointed  to  select  the  route. 
Applications  were  at  once  made  to  the  States  of  Maryland, 
Virginia,  and  Pennsylvania,  for  leave  to  build  the  road,  and 
the  summer  and  autumn  of  1806  was  spent  by  the  commis- 
sioners in  travelling  over  ground  to  determine  the  alignment. 
Starting  at  Cumberland  just  where  "Wills  Creek  joins  the  north 
branch  of  the  Potomac,  the  commissioners  decided  that  the 
route  should  be  over  Wills  Mountain  at  Sandy  Gap,  and  along 
the  line,  but  rarely  on  the  bed,  of  Braddock's  old  road  to  the 
Big  Crossing  of  the  Youghiogheny,  over  Laurel  Hill,  across  the 
Great  Meadows,  past  the  site  of  Fort  Necessity,  and  on  to  the 
Monongahela  at  Ked-Stone-old-Fort,  or,  as  it  had  long  since 
been  called,  Brownsville,  and  thence,  by  as  direct  a  course  as 
the  country  would  permit,  to  the  Ohio,  near  Wheeling.  It 
now  became  the  duty  of  the  President  to  approve  or  disap- 
prove the  work  of  the  commissioners,  but  Jefferson  would  not 
act  till  the  three  States  had  consented  that  he  should  have  a 
free  choice  of  routes.  Pennsylvania  did  not  consent  till  the 
early  spring  of  1807.  Summer  came,  therefore,  before  the 
commissioners  were  again  in  the  field.  Their  instructions 
were  to  change  the  alignment,  bring  the  road  through  Union- 
ville,  and  cut  it  out,  for  half  its  width,  from  Cumberland  to 
Brownsville.  More  money  was  appropriated  in  1810,  and 
still  more  in  1811.  Nevertheless,  the  work  dragged  on  so 
slowly  that  the  first  contracts  for  actually  building  the  road- 
bed were  not  signed  till  May,  1811.  Four  men  then  con- 
tracted for  ten  miles,  beginning  at  Cumberland,  and  bound 
themselves  to  have  their  work  completed  by  August  first, 
1812. 

Thus,  when  the  war  for  commercial  independence  opened, 
Congress  had  yielded  to  the  demands  of  the  East  and  of  the 
West,  and  had  begun  to  make  internal  improvements  at  Gov- 
ernment expense.  Hassler  at  London  seeking  books  and  in- 
struments with  which  to  found  the  Coast  Survey,  the  work- 
men in  Maryland  ploughing  and  grading,  pounding  and  roll- 
ing the  National  Pike,  excited  no  comment  whatever.  It  ia 
quite  likely  that  not  one  third  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  were  aware  of  what  was  going  on.  Yet  the  political, 
the  economic  consequences  of  the  era  of  internal  improve- 


1805.  CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWABE  CANAL.  471 

ments  thus  opened  have  outlasted  every  result  of  the  war  in 
which  the  people  were  about  to  engage. 

What  Congress  was  willing  to  do  was,  however,  but  a  tri- 
fling part  of  what  it  was  asked  to  do.  Many  of  the  applications 
were  easily  disposed  of.  An  adverse  report,  a  postponement 
till  another  session,  was  enough  to  end  such  demands  as  that  for 
the  improvement  of  the  harbor  of  Nantucket  or  for  a  pier  in 
Barnstable  Bay.  But  occasionally  an  appeal  for  aid  came  in 
which  could  not  be  disposed  of  by  the  report  of  a  committee 
or  the  vote  of  one  House.  Such  was  the  memorial  of  the 
president  and  directors  of  the  Chesapeake  and  Delaware  Canal. 

This  was  a  company  chartered  by  the  States  of  Maryland, 
Delaware,  and  Pennsylvania  to  dig  a  canal  across  the  neck  of 
the  peninsula  which  parts  the  waters  of  Delaware  and  Chesa- 
peake Bays.  The  scheme  seemed  so  likely  to  be  profitable 
that  no  difficulty  was  found  in  getting  subscribers,  and  four 
hundred  thousand  of  the  five  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
dollars  of  capital'  stock  were  quickly  taken.  Engineers  were 
then  employed,  the  alignment  determined,  and  work  begun 
on  a  large  feeder,  when  the  stockholders  took  alarm.  One 
hundred  thousand  dollars  had  been  spent  in  buying  water 
rights,  making  surveys,  and  digging  a  feeder,  yet  not  a  clod 
had  been  turned  along  the  line  of  the  main  canal.  Seeing  one 
quarter  of  their  subscriptions  gone  with  nothing,  in  their 
opinion,  to  show  for  it,  the  stockholders  refused  to  pay  their 
assessments.  Suits  followed,  and  in  December,  1805,  the 
directors,  in  distress,  appealed  to  Congress  for  help.  In  their 
memorial  they  excused  the  call  on  the  ground  that  the  work 
was  of  general,  not  merely  local  importance.  It  was  the 
beginning  of  a  great  system  of  inland  navigation  binding 
together  eleven  States.  One  glance  at  the  map  was  enough  to 
show  that  if  the  Chesapeake  and  Delaware  Canal  was  dug, 
another  much-talked-of  canal,  the  Delaware  and  Earitan,  would 
surely  be  cut  across  New  Jersey.  A  continuous  inland  water- 
way would  then  be  opened  from  Hampton  Koads  to  Narra- 
gansett  Bay  and  the  head- waters  of  the  Hudson  and  the  Mo- 
hawk. Nay,  more.  The  Dismal  Swamp  Canal,  then  building, 
would  extend  the  line  to  Albemarle  Sound  and  the  bays  and 
inlets  of  South  Carolina.  Another  canal  from  Buzzard's  Bay 


472  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

to  Massachusetts  Bay  would  open  the  route  to  Boston,  while  a 
few  years  would  suffice  to  see  the  Hudson  joined  with  Lake 
Champlain,  and  the  Mohawk  with  Lake  Ontario.  The  eco- 
nomic value  of  such  a  work  was  set  forth  by  statistics.  Each 
State,  it  was  said,  produced  something  which  the  others  wanted. 
Coal  abounded  on  the  navigable  waters  of  the  James,  and  was 
wanted  in  every  maritime  city  on  the  coast  and  in  every  in- 
land city  where  mills  and  factories  existed.  Flour  and  wheat, 
corn  and  meal,  were  products  of  the  Middle  States,  and  were 
wanted  southward  and  eastward.  Tobacco  grew  in  a  few 
States  and  was  consumed  in  all.  The  fish,  the  oils,  the  lumber 
produced  in  the  East,  were  much  in  demand  in  the  South. 
But  the  enormous  cost  of  land  transportation  and  the  immense 
distance  by  water  had  seriously  hindered  this  interchange. 
From  the  head  of  Chesapeake  Bay  to  Philadelphia  by  sea  was  a 
journey  of  five  hundred  miles,  and  could  not  be  performed  un- 
der a  week  or  ten  days.  The  consequence  was  that  coal  from 
Liverpool  sold  for  less  at  Philadelphia  than  coal  from  Rich- 
mond. A  ton  of  merchandise  was  frequently  brought  from 
Europe  for  forty  shillings  sterling,  or  about  nine  dollars.  But 
the  same  sum  of  money  would  not  move  the  same  ton  thirty 
miles  on  land.  Let  the  canals  be  opened  and  this  hindrance 
would  be  removed.  Twenty-one  miles  of  Chesapeake  and 
Delaware  Canal  would  save  five  hundred  miles  around  the 
peninsula.  Twenty-seven  miles  of  canal  between  Trenton  and 
New  Brunswick  would  save  three  hundred  miles  of  sea  travel 
to  New  York.  Dangers  of  the  sea  and  dangers  of  the  road 
would  not  exist.  Insurance  rates  would  fall,  freight  rates 
would  be  reduced,  and  a  flourishing  interstate  commerce  arise. 
In  the  Senate  the  memorial  found  many  friends  and  was 
warmly  supported.  They  could  not,  however,  venture  to  give 
money.  The  Treasury  was,  indeed,  full  to  overflowing. 


the  House  was  bent,  not  on  spending,  but  on  distributing  the  \ 
surplus,  and  had  already  appointed  a  committee  to  report  upon/ 
a  plan.     There  were,  moreover,  many  who  doubted  the  con- 
stitutionality of  voting  money  to  dig  canals.     But  that  any 
one  should  object  to  give  away  land  for  such  a  use  did  not 
seem  likely.     Great  blocks  of  it  had   often  been  given  for 
church  purposes,  for  schools  ;  to  the  refugees  from  Canada  ; 


1807.  GALLATIN'S  KEPOET.  473 

to  the  French  at  Gallipolis ;  to  the  Marquis  Lafayette ;  to 
Lewis  and  Clarke ;  to  the  Revolutionary  soldiers ;  nay,  to  Ebe- 
nezer  and  Isaac  Zane  for  building  a  road  in  Ohio.  Why  not, 
then,  for  building  a  canal  in  Delaware  ?  But  the  committee 
having  the  memorial  in  charge  did  not  propose  to  give  land. 
They  proposed  to  buy  the  shares  of  the  company  which  had 
not  been  taken  at  two  hundred  dollars  each  and  pay  for  them 
in  land.  A  bill  for  this  purpose  was  brought  in,*  but  went 
over  till  February,  1807,  when  consideration  was  again  put  on0 
till  the  next  session.f 

While  the  bill  was  still  under  debate  John  Quincy  Adams 
moved  $  that  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  be  directed  to  re- 
port a  plan  for  a  general  system  of  internal  improvements. 
He  was  to  consider  the  opening  of  roads,  the  removal  of  ob- 
structions from  rivers,  and  the  building  of  canals.  He  was  to 
make  a  statement  of  the  number  and  character  of  works  of 
public  utility  then  existing  in  the  country,  and  was  to  name 
such  as,  in  his  opinion,  were  worthy  of  Government  aid.  The 
motion  did  not  pass.  Nevertheless,  within  ten  days  a  senator 
from  Ohio  secured  the  passage  of  a  resolution  precisely  simi- 
lar in  character.* 

With  these  instructions  from  the  Senate  before  him,  Galla- 
tin  set  to  work.  A  series  of  questions  regarding  the  number, 
length,  route,  cost  per  mile  of  canals  and  roads,  rate  of  toll, 
gross  receipts,  and  substance  of  their  charters,  was  drawn  up 
and  sent  to  the  collectors  of  the  ports,  with  orders  to  secure 
full  answers.  From  the  information  thus  obtained,  Gallatin 
prepared  that  famous  report  on  Roads,  Canals,  Harbors,  and 
Rivers  which  is  still  ranked  among  the  best  of  his  official 
papers.  By  those  who  have  never  read  that  report,  or,  having 
read  it,  know  nothing  of  the  history  of  the  times  in  which  it 
was  made,  the  work  of  the  Secretary  has  been  greatly  overesti- 
mated. There  was  little  in  it  that  was  new.  A  map,  he  said, 
would  show  that  the  United  States  possessed — were  it  not  for 
four  interrupting  necks  of  land — a  tide-water  inland  naviga- 

*  Journal  of  the  United  States  Senate,  January  28,  March  21,  April  12,  1806. 
f  Journal  of  the  Senate,  January  13,  15,  February  5,  10,  24,  1807. 

£  Journal  of  the  Senate,  February  23,  1 807. 

*  March  2,  1807. 


474:  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

tion  secure  from  the  violence  of  storms  and  the  attacks  of 
enemies,  and  stretching  from  Boston  to  the  southern  confines 
of  Georgia.  These  necks  were  the  isthmus  of  Barnstable, 
New  Jersey  from  the  Raritan  to  the  Delaware,  the  peninsula 
between  the  Delaware  and  the  Chesapeake  Bays,  and  the  low 
marshy  tract  which  separated  Chesapeake  Bay  from  Albemarle 
Sound.  Were  they  all  cut  through  by  canals,  the  combined 
length  of  the  four  water-ways  would  not  be  one  hundred 
miles,  nor  the  cost  much  over  three  millions  of  dollars.  The 
plan  was  old.  The  directors  of  the  Chesapeake  and  Delaware 
had  urged  it  on  Congress  in  their  memorial  in  1805,  Bayard 
had  explained  it  in  his  speech  in  1806,  and  canal  companies 
had  been  chartered  to  carry  it  out.* 

The  second  suggestion  of  the  Secretary  was  that  of  a 
great  turnpike  along  the  Atlantic  coast  from  Maine  to  Georgia. 
This,  too,  was  old,  and  had  but  a  year  before  been  presented 
to  the  Senate  in  a  resolution.  Having  thus  disposed  of  the 
subject  of  communication  north  and  south,  Gallatin  took  up 
that  of  communication  east  and  west  and  southwest.  Four 
great  rivers  flowing  into  the  Atlantic  should,  he  thought,  be 
improved  to  the  head  of  possible  navigation  and  then  joined 
by  four  great  roads  over  the  mountains  with  four  other  rivers 
of  the  Mississippi  valley.  The  rivers  selected  were  the 
Juniata  and  the  Alleghany,  the  Potomac  and  the  Monongahela, 
the  James  and  Kanawha,  and  the  Santee  or  Savannah  and  the 
Tennessee.  There  should  also  be  a  canal  around  the  falls  of 
the  Ohio,  and  good  roads  from  Pittsburg  to  Detroit,  to  St. 
Louis,  and  New  Orleans.  Northward  and  northwestward  the 
Hudson  should  be  joined  with  Lake  Champlain,  and  the  Mo- 
hawk with  Lake  Ontario.  A  canal  should  be  dug  around 
Niagara  that  sloops  might  pass  from  Ontario  to  Lake  Michi- 
gan. The  cost  of  this  splendid  system  of  inland  water-ways 
would  be  twenty  millions  of  dollars.  The  sum  was  indeed  a 
vast  one ;  yet  the  United  States  could  well  afford  to  spend  it. 
Her  Treasury  was  full.  Her  surplus  was  yearly  five  millions 

*  Dismal  Swamp  Canal,  1787  and  1790.  Chesapeake  and  Delaware  Canal, 
1797,  1801,  1802.  Delaware  and  Raritan  Canal,  1796.  The  route  from  Boston 
Harbor  to  Long  Island  Sound  was  surveyed  by  order  of  the  General  Court  of 
Massachusetts,  March,  1806. 


1808-'10.     EFFECT  OF  GALLATIN'S  EEPORT.        475 

of  dollars.  She  might  therefore,  without  embarrassment, 
draw  two  millions  a  year  for  ten  years  from  the  public  Treas- 
ury ;  or,  better  still,  set  apart  the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  pub- 
lic lands. 

The  report  was  read  on  the  sixth  of  April,  1808.  A  time 
less  propitious  could  not  have  been  chosen.  The  embargo 
had  been  on  three  months.  The  first  and  second  supplement- 
ary acts  had  been  passed.  Trade  and  commerce  were  at  an 
end ;  the  whole  frontier  was  in  commotion ;  Jefferson  was  on 
the  point  of  declaring  the  people  of  the  region  around  Cham- 
plain  to  be  in  a  state  of  insurrection ;  while  the  surplus  of 
which  the  Secretary  spoke  was  fast  melting  away.  Under 
these  circumstances  the  Senate  did  no  more  than  order  that 
twelve  hundred  copies  of  the  report  should  be  printed,  and 
that  six  should  be  given  to  each  member  of  Congress. 

From  the  information  thus  spread  broadcast  during  the 
summer,  a  plentiful  harvest  of  petitions  was  gathered  in  the 
autumn.  Every  corporation  which,  under  the  plan  of  Gallatin, 
seemed  even  remotely  entitled  to  aid,  now  made  ready  to 
seek  it.  The  Carondelet  Canal,  the  Chesapeake  and  Delaware 
Canal,  the  Ohio  Canal,  the  Susquehanna  Bridge  Company,  the 
Susquehanna  and  Tioga  Turnpike  Company,  the  Philadelphia, 
Brandywine  and  New  London  Turnpike  Company,  sent  in 
memorials.  Toward  them  all  the  Senate  was  well  disposed. 
Bat  a  different  disposition  ruled  the  House,  and  there  not  one 
of  the  Senate  bills  was  passed. 

Such  action  did  not  discourage  petitions,  and  with  the 
opening  of  the  eleventh  Congress  a  new  crop  came  to  the  tables 
of  the  Vice-President  and  the  Speaker.  And  now  the  House 
began  to  give  signs  of  yielding.  Among  the  men  who  at  that 
session  took  seats  for  the  first  time  in  Congress  was  Peter  Buell 
Porter.  He  was  a  native  of  New  England  and  a  graduate  of 
Yale.  He  had  studied  law  in  Connecticut,  had  caught  the  rage 
for  "Western  emigration,  and  was  then  engaged  in  the  business 
of  transportation  on  the  Niagara  frontier.  He  represented  the 
western  district  of  New  York,  was  perfectly  familiar  with  the 
peculiar  needs  of  the  people,  and  had  studied  their  political 
and  economic  condition  as  only  a  man  of  education  could.  The 
friends  to  internal  improvements  in  the  Senate  consulted  him 


476  ECONOMIC  STATE   OF  THE  PEOPLE.       CHAP.  xxn. 

freely,  and  it  is  not  unlikely  persuaded  him  to  become  the  cham- 
pion of  the  movement  in  the  House.  However  this  may  be,  he 
undertook  the  task,  and  a  bill  for  the  internal  improvement  of 
the  country  by-roads  and  canals,  a  bill  in  the  making  of  which  he 
had  a  hand,  having  come  down  from  the  Senate,  he  seized  the 
opportunity  and  presented  the  whole  subject  in  a  fine  speech. 
The  people  of  the  United  States,  he  began  by  saying,  were 
parted  by  a  geographical  line  into  two  great  and  distinct  sec- 
tions :  the  people  who  dwelt  on  the  Atlantic  slope  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies  and  were  made  up  of  merchants,  manufacturers,  and 
agriculturists,  and  the  people  who  dwelt  on  the  western  slopes 
and  were  exclusively  farmers.  It  was  the  fashion  to  assert  that 
this  mountain  barrier,  this  diversity  of  occupation,  and  the 
differences  of  character  to  which  they  gave  rise,  would  lead  to  a 
separation  of  the  States  at  no  very  distant  day.  In  his  humble 
opinion,  this  very  diversity,  if  used  skilfully,  would  become  the 
means  of  producing  a  closer  and  more  intimate  union  of  the 
States  than  ever.  At  that  very  moment  the  people  of  the  West 
were  suffering,  and  suffering  badly,  for  the  want  of  a  market. 
There  was  no  vent  for  their  surplus  produce  at  home.  All 
were  farmers  and  produced  the  same  articles  with  the  same  ease. 
Now,  this  want  of  a  market  had  already  done  harm  not  only 
to  the  industry,  but  also  to  the  morals  of  the  people.  Such 
was  the  fertility  of  their  farms  that  half  their  time  spent  in 
labor  was  sufficient  to  produce  enough  to  satisfy  their  wants. 
To  produce  more  there  was  no  incentive,  for  they  knew  not 
what  to  do  with  it.  The  other  half  of  their  time  was  there- 
fore spent  in  idleness  and  dissipation.  No  question,  surely,  of 
greater  importance  could  possibly  come  before  the  House  than 
the  question :  How  can  this  evil  be  removed  ?  How  can  a 
market,  and  an  incentive  to  labor,  be  provided  for  the  people 
of  the  "West  ?  His  answer  was,  by  a  canal  from  the  Mohawk 
to  Lake  Ontario ;  a  canal  around  the  falls  of  Niagara ;  a  canal 
from  the  Cuyahoga  to  the  Muskingum ;  and  another  past  the 
falls  of  the  Ohio  at  Louisville. 

The  first  result  of  such  a  system  of  inland  navigation  would 
be  a  fall  in  the  cost  of  transportation.  This  would  enable 
farmers  to  send  to  market  grain  and  flour  now  shut  out  by 
the  expense  of  land-carriage.  "Wheat  was  one  of  the  staples  of 


1810.  PORTER  OX  INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENTS.  477 

the  lake  country,  and  was  grown  there  with  greater  certainty 
and  in  greater  perfection  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  United 
States.  Yet  wheat  was  selling  on  the  lakes  for  fifty  cents 
per  bushel.  This  depression  was  due  solely  to  the  fact  that 
it  cost  one  dollar  a  bushel  to  send  it  to  New  York.  Let  a 
canal  be  cut  from  Lake  Ontario  to  the  Mohawk,  and  the 
cost  of  moving  would  fall  to  twenty-five  cents  a  bushel,  while 
the  price  on  the  lakes  would  rise  to  one  dollar.  But  it  cost 
the  farmer  from  thirty  to  forty  cents  to  grow  a  bushel  of 
wheat.  When  he  sold  it  for  fifty  cents  his  profit  was,  there- 
fore, but  ten  cents.  "When  he  sold  it  for  a  dollar,  his  profit 
would  be  sixty  cents,  an  increase  of  six  hundred  per 
cent. 

Then  would  the  farmer  be  able  to  pay  for  his  land.  The 
people  who  had  settled  on  the  public  domain  were  indebted  to 
the  Government  to  the  amount  of  several  millions  of  dollars. 
"Without  a  market  they  could  never  free  themselves  from  debt. 
"Without  internal  improvements  they  could  never  reach  a  mar- 
ket, and  without  the  help  of  Congress  there  could  never  be 
internal  improvements.  Neglect  this  opportunity  to  secure 
the  affections  of  the  "Western  people,  refuse  to  extend  to  them 
the  benefits  their  situation  so  strongly  demanded,  and  they 
would,  some  day,  accost  the  Government  in  language  higher 
than  the  Constitution.  Let  them  see  millions  expended  for 
the  encouragement  of  commerce,  while  constitutional  doubts 
were  expressed  concerning  the  right  to  expend  one  cent  for 
the  advancement  of  agriculture ;  let  them  see  banks  established 
for  the  accommodation  of  the  merchant,  but  no  canals  dug  for 
the  accommodation  of  the  farmer,  and  they  would  very  soon 
take  possession  of  their  country  and  with  physical  force  defy 
all  the  tax-gatherers  that  could  be  sent  against  them.  If  they 
were  to  be  attached  to  the  Union  they  must  be  attached  through 
their  interests.  If  the  Government  shunned  all  communica- 
tion with  them  save  that  which  sprung  from  the  relation  of 
debtor  and  creditor,  let  no  man  doubt  that  this  relationship 
would  very  speedily  be  ended.  "When  Porter  had  finished  his 
speech  he  moved  for  a  committee  to  consider  the  fitness  of 
appropriating  land,  or  the  proceeds  thereof,  to  building  roads 
and  canals  of  national  importance.  The  House,  without  a 


478  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

division,  agreed,  and  appointed  a  committee  of  twenty.*  From 
them  came  a  bill  essentially  the  same  as  one  which,  not  many 
weeks  before,  had  been  reported  in  the  Senate.  In  substance, 
this  bill  provided  that  the  Government  should  take  one  half 
of  the  capital  stock  of  any  corporation  which  had  been,  or 
which  might  be,  chartered  to  dig  any  of  the  canals  or  build 
any  of  the  roads  suggested  by  Gallatin.  Having  done  this 
much,  Congress  would  do  no  more,  and  the  session  passed 
without  action.  Nor  was  the  following  session  more  fruitful 
of  results.  The  Senate  made  a  land  grant  to  the  Chesapeake 
and  Delaware  Canal,  refused  a  grant  to  the  Havre  de  Grace 
bridge,  and  ordered  a  subscription  to  the  stock  of  the  Ohio 
Canal.  But  again  the  House  would  do  nothing,  and  the  elev- 
enth Congress  was  in  turn  beset  with  petitions,  old  and 
new. 

Twenty  years  before,  in  the  early  days  of  the  rage  for  canals, 
Pennsylvania  had  chartered  two  companies.  One  was  to  join 
the  waters  of  the  Schuylkill  and  Delaware.  The  other  was  to 
construct  a  canal  from  the  Schuylkill  to  the  Susquehanna. 
Each  had  raised  money ;  each  had  made  surveys ;  each  had 
bought  land,  dug  some  miles  of  trench,  become  embarrassed, 
and  fallen  into  decay.  From  this  condition  the  directors  and 
stockowners  were  suddenly  roused  by  the  report  of  Gallatin 
in  1807. f  ^Regarding  this  report  as  a  pledge  of  Federal  aid,:}: 
the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania  united  the  two  companies 
in  one,  called  the  new  corporation  the  Union  Canal  Com- 
pany of  Pennsylvania,  and  gave  it  power  to  extend  its  route 
from  the  Susquehanna  to  Lake  Erie.  As  soon  as  the  new  char- 
ter was  secured,  the  affairs  of  the  old  companies  were  put  in  \ 
order,  and  Congress  asked  to  help  on  the  enterprise.  But,  of 
all  beggars,  the  sturdiest,  the  most  unblushing  was  the  State 
of  New  York.  There,  too,  after  years  of  effort  on  the  part  of 
individuals,  the  State  was  roused  to  activity  by  the  report  of 
Gallatin.  Encouraged  by  the  near  prospect  of  Federal  aid, 
the  Legislature  instructed  a  commission  to  explore  a  route  for 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  1809-'10,  February  9,  1810,  p.  1401. 
f  Memorial  of  the  President  and  Managers  of  the  Union  Canal  Company. 
Annals  of  Congress,  1811,  1812,  pp.  2159-2161, 
Jlbid. 


1811-'12.  THE  EEIE  CANAL.  479 

inland  navigation  from  the  Hudson  to  Lakes  Erie  and  Ontario.* 
The  commission  reported  f  and  the  Legislature  promptly 
passed  an  act  to  provide  for  the  improvement  of  the  internal 
navigation  of  the  State.  $  In  it  nine  well-known  men  were 
named  canal  commissioners.*  Among  the  many  duties  as- 
signed them  was  that  of  applying  to  Congress  and  the  Legis- 
latures of  the  neighboring  States  for  aid  and  co-operation  in 
the  undertaking.  The  answers  were  not  encouraging.  Ten- 
nessee instructed  her  senators  and  requested  her  representa- 
tives to  vote  for  congressional  aid.  New  Jersey  was  deeply 
interested  in  the  canal,  but  could  not  help  it  herself,  and  saw 
no  reason  for  asking  the  Federal  Government  to  do  so.  Con- 
necticut thought  it  inexpedient  to  act  on  the  request.  Ver- 
mont put  off  consideration.  Massachusetts  and  Ohio,  followed 
the  example  of  Tennessee.  The  acting  Governor  and  the 
judges  of  Michigan  Territory  did  not  approve  of  the  route. 
The  special  committee  sent  to  Washington  to  lay  the  appli- 
cation before  Congress  reported  failure.  Madison  they  found 
troubled  with  constitutional  scruples.  Gallatin  thought  land 
might  be  given,  but  not  money.  Some  congressmen  thought 
the  scheme  too  vast ;  some  were  jealous  of  New  York ;  some 
were  eager  for  a  constitutional  amendment  giving  Congress 
power  to  charter  banks  and  build  canals  without  consulting 
the  States.  In  the  end  New  York  received  nothing.  The 
Senate  did  not  act.  The  House,  taking  up  the  memorials  of 
the  Chesapeake  and  Delaware  Canal,  of  the  Union  Canal,  of 
the  commissioners  from  New  York,  declared  that  the  state 
of  the  country  was  not  such  as  to  justify  grants  of  land  or 
gifts  of  money  for  the  purpose  of  building  canals.  Though 
incensed  by  the  refusal  of  land,  the  commissioners  were  not 
disheartened,  and  recommended  the  Legislature  to  borrow 
money  abroad  and  begin  the  work  without  delay.  | 

*  Appointed  by  joint  resolutions,  March  13-15,  1810. 
f  Report  of  the  Commissioners,  etc.,  Albany,  1811. 

\  Act  of  April  8,  1811. 

*  Gouverneur  Morris,  Stephen  Van  Renssclaer,  De  Witt  Clinton,  Simeon  De 
Witt,  William  North,  Thomas  Eddy,  Peter  B.  Porter,  Robert  R.  Livingston,  Rob- 
ert Fulton. 

|  Report  of  the  commissioners  appointed  by  an  act  of  the  Legislature  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  etc.,  passed  April  8,  1811,  etc.     Albany,  1812. 


480  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP. 

The  advice  was  sound.  Rude  as  were  the  means  of  trans- 
portation, costly  as  was  the  movement  of  freight,  the  valley  of 
the  Mohawk  was  even  then  a  highway  of  trade  and  commerce. 
From  Albany  the  way  was  fifteen  miles  over  a  good  turnpike 
to  Schenectady,  where  water  navigation  up  the  Mohawk  began. 
Three  kinds  of  craft  were  in  use.  But  the  favorite  was  the 
Schenectady  boat,  a  broad  and  shallow  scow  some  fifty  feet  in 
length,  steered  by  a  sweep  oar  of  forty  feet,  and  pushed  up 
stream  by  man-power.  When  the  river  was  full,  ten  tons 
could  be  carried.  When  the  water  was  low,  three  tons  made 
the  load.  At  places  where  the  stream  in  the  dry  season  was 
likely  to  be  but  a  few  inches  deep,  or  where  a  ledge  of  rocks 
barred  the  way,  low  stone  walls  were  built  out  from  each  bank 
till  they  almost  met  in  the  channel.  All  the  water  coming 
down  the  river  would  thus  be  held  back  by  a  rude  dam,  the 
depth  of  the  stream  would  be  increased,  and  the  boat  easily 
pushed  over  the  ledge. 

West  of  Schenectady  the  first  serious  hindrance  was  met  at 
Little  Falls,  where  the  Mohawk  plunged  down  a  high  ledge. 
To  pass  this,  a  canal  and  eight  locks  were  necessary.  Once 
through  the  canal,  the  boats  went  on  to  Utica,  a  thriving  town 
of  two  hundred  houses,  where  the  freight  was  sorted.  Goods 
for  the  salt  works  were  carried  from  Utica  to  Rome,  from 
Rome  by  canal  to  Wood  Creek,  floated  down  the  creek  to 
Oneida  Lake,  through  the  lake  and  Onondaga  river  to  Seneca 
river,  up  the  Seneca  to  a  swampy  creek  which  led  to  Salt 
Lake,  on  the  high  banks  of  which  stood  the  town  of  Salina. 
The  place  then  contained  some  fifty  houses  and  was  wholly 
given  over  to  the  manufacture  of  salt.  Three  hundred  ket- 
tles were  boiling  night  and  day,  and  one  hundred  bushels  of 
salt  were  produced  each  hour.  Some  of  this  output  found  a 
market  to  the  eastward.  But  most  of  it  was  floated  down  the 
lake  and  outlet  to  the  Seneca  river,  and  so  to  Os\vego  on  the 
shores  of  Lake  Ontario,  where  schooners  were  always  waiting 
to  carry  freight  to  Lewiston.  Twenty-five  years  before,  \vhen 
New  York  yielded  to  Massachusetts  the  fee  simple  of  all  land 
west  of  the  line  through  Seneca  Lake,  she  reserved  a  strip  one 
mile  wide  along  Niagara  river.  Over  this  strip  Porter,  Bar- 
ton and  Company  enjoyed  the  sole  right  to  transport  goods. 


1811.  LACK  OF  EOADS  IN  PENNSYLVANIA.  481 

Taking  the  goods  in  charge  at  Lewiston,  they  would  deliver 
them  to  another  fleet  of  schooners  at  Black  Rock.  Thence 
the  barrels  and  boxes  went  by  water  to  Erie,  by  land  over  the 
portage  to  old  Fort  Le  Boeuf,  and  once  more  by  water  to 
Pittsburg. 

Of  all  the  cities  of  the  Ohio  valley,  this  was  the  busiest. 
It  was  the  centre  of  Western  emigration ;  the  centre  of  Western 
and  Southwestern  trade,  the  one  place  through  which  the  mid- 
dle stream  of  population  never  ceased  to  pass.  To  it  came  the 
great  salt  trade  of  central  New  York,  amounting  to  one  hun- 
dred thousand  bushels  annually.  To  it  came  the  immense  over- 
land trade  from  Philadelphia,  consisting  of  dry-goods,  hollow 
ware,  medicines — everything  needed  to  fit  out  the  emigrant  or 
supply  the  settler  in  the  far  Southwest. 

To  the  value  of  this  fine  trade,  and  the  importance  of  en- 
couraging it,  Pennsylvania  had  long  been  strangely  indifferent. 
But  the  apathy  of  her  legislators  was  at  last  destroyed  by  the 
efforts  of  William  J.  Duane.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Legis- 
lature of  1809  and  1810,  and  chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Roads  and  Internal  Navigation.  In  seeking  for  information 
on  the  business  intrusted  to  his  committee,  he  was  amazed  at 
the  little  heed  given  not  only  by  the  representatives,  but  by  the 
people,  to  the  development  of  the  internal  resources  of  the 
State.  The  whole  community  seemed  to  him  to  be  quietly 
sitting  still,  while  New  York  was  rapidly  securing  the  trade  of 
the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Ohio.  In  hope  of  arousing  interest, 
he  published  in  the  Aurora  a  long  series  of  letters  addressed  to 
his  fellow-citizens.  He  complained  that  after  twenty-seven 
years  of  peace  there  was  scarcely  a  public  improvement  in  the 
State  due  to  the  liberality  of  the  Legislature.  Why  was  there 
no  system  of  education  ?  Why  were  not  the  poor  taught  gratis, 
as  the  Constitution  commanded  they  should  be  ?  Why  were  the 
rivers  and  streams  obstructed  ?  Why  were  millions  of  feet  of 
timber  burned  and  not  brought  to  market  ?  Why  were  two 
thirds  of  the  land  a  wilderness,  and  Pennsylvania,  with  the 
largest  white  population  of  any  State  in  the  Union,  surpassed 
by  many  of  her  sisters?  Because  the  people  were  careless 
in  the  choice  of  their  legislators.  Representatives  spoke  as  if 
they  represented  merely  their  own  family,  or,  at  most,  the 

VOL.   III. — 32. 


482  ECONOMIC  STATE   OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

county  from  which  they  came.  Some  boasted  of  being  friends 
to  a  strict  economy.  Some  were  so  ignorant  as  to  think  that 
State  money  invested  in  bank  stocks  would  be  more  profitable 
than  money  invested  in  turnpikes  and  canals.  He  had  him- 
self seen  application  after  application  for  aid  rejected,  though 
well  deserving  a  better  fate.  Now  it  was  a  call  for  aid  to  im- 
prove the  road  from  Pennsborough  to  Towanda  Creek,  a  road 
by  which  salt  could  be  most  cheaply  carried  to  the  interior  coun- 
ties of  the  State.  But  not  a  cent  was  given.  Again  a  paltry 
sum  was  asked  to  help  in  opening  the  great  East  and  West 
road.  This  was  one  of  the  most  important  in  the  State.  It 
ran  through  all  the  northern  counties  and  opened  up  commu- 
nication between  Pennsylvania  and  the  Great  Lakes.  To  this, 
too,  not  a  dollar  was  given.  "What  wonder  was  it,  then,  that 
hundreds  of  farmers  went  West  every  spring  and  autumn  ?  that 
produce  could  not  be  sent  to  market  as  cheaply  as  in  neigh- 
boring States  ?  that  lands  did  not  bring  as  high  a  price  or  sell 
as  readily  as  in  Ohio  or  New  York  ?  What  wonder  was  it 
that  Philadelphia,  once  the  foremost  city  in  the  land,  had  been 
outstripped  by  New  York  and  was  already  hard  pressed  by 
Baltimore  ?  Duane  then  told  his  fellow-citizens  what  they 
should  do.  He  urged  them  to  open  water  communication  be- 
tween the  Delaware  and  the  Susquehanna ;  extend  it  by  the 
west  branch  of  the  Susquehanna  to  Lake  Erie,  and  by  the 
north  branch  secure  the  trade  of  the  rich  and  fertile  region  of 
western  New  York.*  His  friends  declared  that  the  appeal 
was  not  made  in  vain,  and  that  to  it  was  largely  due  the  appro- 
priation of  eight  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand  dollars 
which  the  next  Legislature  made  for  opening  roads  and  build- 
ing bridges,  f  Two  hundred  thousand  wa8  for  a  pike  from 
the  town  of  Northumberland  to  Waterford  in  the  centre  of 
Erie  County.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  was  to  erect 
four  great  bridges  over  the  Susquehanna  at  Harrisburg,  at 
Columbia,  at  Northumberland,  and  at  McCall's  Ferry.  Three 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  was  to  be  used  in  constructing  a 

*  Letters  addressed  to  the  People  of  Pennsylvania  respecting  the  Internal 
Improvement  of  the  Commonwealth  by  Means  of  Roads  and  Canals.  By  William 
J.  Duane,  1811. 

f  April,  1811. 


1812.  TOWNS  ALONG  THE  OHIO.  483. 

turnpike  between  Harrisburg  and  Pittsburg.  These  roads 
and  bridges  once  completed,  Pennsylvania,  it  was  believed, 
would  drive  every  competitor  from  Pittsburg  and  control  the 
Western  trade. 

That  trade  was  well  worth  securing.  For  seven  months 
of  every  year  the  streets  of  the  town  were  crowded  with  emi- 
grants arriving  and  departing,  and  its  water  front  was  fringed 
with  boats  of  every  description.  Boat-building  was  the  chief 
industry  of  the  place,  and,  as  no  boat  ever  came  back,  the  busi- 
ness never  flagged.  At  either  river  bank  could  be  procured 
at  a  moment's  notice  canoes  cut  from  a  single  log,  pirogues 
able  to  carry  fifteen  barrels  of  salt,  skiffs  of  from  five  hun- 
dred to  twenty  thousand  pounds  burden,  bateaux,  arks,  Ken- 
tucky broadhorns,  New  Orleans  boats  for  use  on  the  Missis- 
sippi river,  and  barges  and  keel  boats  with  masts  and  sails. 
Provided,  according  to  his  needs,  with  one  or  more  of  such 
craft,  and  a  copy  of  the  Navigator,  to  warn  him  of  the  dan- 
gerous rocks  and  eddies  that  obstructed  the  way,  the  trader  or 
the  emigrant  would  push  off  into  the  stream  and  float  slowly 
down  with  the  current.  The  river  banks,  which  fifteen  years 
before  were  clothed  with  primeval  forest,  were  now  dotted 
with  a  succession  of  frontier  towns.  Below  Pittsburg  came 
Beaver,  and  Georgetown,  and  Steubenville,  and  Warren,  and 
Wheeling,  which  was  fast  rivalling  Pittsburg.  Its  population 
was  increasing.  Its  business  was  large.  Twice  each  week 
stages  went  out  to  and  came  in  from  Philadelphia.  In  the 
dry  months  of  August  and  September,  when  the  Ohio  was 
low  and  no  boats  could  come  down  from  Pittsburg,  all  the 
trade  and  commerce  of  the  city  at  the  head  of  the  river  was 
diverted  to  Wheeling.  Next  after  Wheeling  was  Pultney,  and 
then  Marietta,  the  model  town  on  the  Ohio.  Then  came  Yienna 
and  Bellepre,  and  the  ruins  of  what  had  once  been  the  home 
of  Blennerhasset,  Belleville,  and  Point  Pleasant,  where  ten  years 
later  Ulysses  Grant  was  born,  Gallipolis  and  French  Grants, 
Limestone,  Manchester,  Charlestown,  Augusta,  Columbia,  and 
Cincinnati.  Lawrenceville  was  the  first  town  met  with  in 
Indiana  Territory.  Below  it  lay  Westport  and  Louisville,  and 
Jeffersonville,  Clarksville,  West  Point,  Henderson,  and,  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Cumberland,  Smithtown.  There  numbers 


484:  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

of  barges  turned  aside  and  went  up  the  Cumberland  to  Nash- 
ville. 

The  vast  stretch  of  thinly  populated  country  in  which 
Nashville  was  the  foremost  town  was  commercially  a  world 
by  itself.  All  its  supplies  were  drawn  from  Philadelphia  and 
Baltimore.  All  its  produce  was  sent  to  New  Orleans.  The 
exchange  of  the  hats  and  boots,  powder  and  lead,  salt,  and 
cotton  cloth,  brought  down  from  Pittsburg,  for  the  cotton 
and  hemp,  pork  and  lard,  bearskins,  deerskins,  and  butter  to 
go  down  the  Mississippi,  was  almost  universally  by  barter.  At 
New  Orleans  the  produce  was  indeed  sold  for  specie ;  but  little 
of  the  coin  remained  in  Tennessee,  for  all  was  needed  to  buy 
new  goods  at  Pittsburg.  This  way  of  trading  began  in  the 
closing  years  of  the  century,  after  the  Spanish  treaty  had  se- 
cured for  the  "Western  country  the  right  of  deposit  at  New 
Orleans,  and  when  specie  was  hardly  to  be  met  with.  An  ad- 
vertisement of  that  time  for  wood-cutters  at  the  Cumberland 
Furnace  promises  all  who  come  half  a  dollar  a  cord,  payable 
in  salt,  or  castings,  or  bar  iron,  delivered  at  the  landing  six 
months  later.*  Another  offers  to  purchase  two  hundred  gal- 
lons of  prime  rye  whiskey,  half  to  be  paid  for  in  cash  and  half 
in  good  horses.f  In  another  an  offer  is  made  to  buy  negroes, 
one  hundred  dollars  of  their  value  to  be  paid  in  dry  salt.  In 
a  fourth  a  creditor  informs  his  debtors  that  they  may  pay  him 
in  hemp,  cotton,  or  dry  hides.:}:  In  a  fifth  debtors  are  notified 
to  settle  in  ginned  cotton  or  pork.*  In  a  sixth  the  creditor 
declares  himself  ready  to  take  cotton,  pork,  or  tow  linen.  J 
In  a  seventh  a  stage  wagon  with  harness  is  offered  in  exchange 
for  cotton,  bacon,  or  hams.A  "When  James  Lyon  was  driven 
from  Washington  by  the  Federalists,  and  attempted  to  estab- 
lish his  Cabinet  and  his  National  Magazine  in  the  Western 
country,  he  assured  the  people  of  Tennessee  that  he  would 
gladly  receive  the  subscription  price  in  cotton,  hemp,  or  wheat 
delivered  at  Nashville.  Q  Not  long  before  this  an  enterprising 
trader  announced  in  the  columns  of  the  Gazette  that  he  was 

*  Tennessee  Gazette,  June  25,  1800.          |  Ibid. 

f  Ibid.  A  Ibid.,  December  3,  1800. 

I  Ibid.,  October  8,  1800.  I)  Ibid.,  June  10,  1801. 

*  Ibid.,  December  3,  1800 


1801.  TRADE  IN  THE  SOUTHWEST.  485 

about  to  attempt  a  new  venture.  This  was  nothing  less  than 
opening  a  market  for  the  products  of  the  country  and  supply- 
ing the  community  with  cash.*  It  must,  said  he,  be  obvious 
to  every  one  that  a  circulating  medium  was  badly  needed,  and 
that  the  exportation  of  produce  was  the  only  way  by  which 
the  money  so  much  wanted  could  be  obtained.  He  proposed, 
therefore,  to  buy  hemp,  pork,  flour,  cotton,  beeswax,  and  a 
score  or  so  of  beef  cattle,  sell  them  wherever  he  could,  and 
bring  back  the  cash,  and  he  hoped  that  his  fellow-citizens 
would  encourage  this  first  attempt  to  carry  produce  to  a  mar- 
ket. They  seem  to  have  done  so,  and  a  number  of  merchants 
were  soon  engaged  in  bringing  in  from  New  York,  Philadel- 
phia, and  Baltimore  what  they  announced  as  fine  assortments 
of  merchandise  to  be  sold  at  Nashville  for  produce,  f  One 
trader  goes  so  far  as  to  remind  the  people  that  to  him  they 
owe  "  the  pleasing  prospect  of  an  established  cotton  market " ; 
declares  that  he  was  the  first  to  bring  about  this  trade,  and 
insists  that  they  should  in  return  deal  exclusively  with  him.:]: 
As  years  passed  on,  even  this  manner  of  trading  proved 
disappointing.  The  mass  of  the  community,  it  is  true,  was 
much  the  better  for  it.  The  creature  comforts  of  the  people 
were  increased.  It  put  better  clothes  on  their  backs,  better 
shoes  on  their  feet,  better  furniture  in  their  houses.  But  it 
brought  no  more  specie  to  their  pockets,  and  by  1810  the 
newspapers  are  again  full  of  complaints  and  remedies.  Some 
attributed  the  scarcity  of  cash  to  the  refusal  of  the  State,  the 
banks,  and  the  business  men  to  receive  the  old  cut  money 
which  for  years  past  had  been  taken  by  everybody.  Some 
thought  the  falling  off  in  emigration  was  the  true  cause. 
Others  laid  it  to  the  custom  of  buying  at  Philadelphia  and 
not  at  New  Orleans.  This  produced  four  evils.  As  the 
merchandise  was  bought  at  Philadelphia,  and  the  cotton  and 
hemp  for  which  it  was  exchanged  at  Nashville  were  sold  at 
Natchez  or  New  Orleans,  the  money  did  not  remain  in  Ten- 
nessee, but  went  on  to  Philadelphia.  This  barter  kept  down 
the  price  of  produce,  because  more  was  grown  than  could  be 

*  Tennessee  Gazette,  October  8,  1800. 

f  Ibid.,  April  1,  1801,  and  September  16,  1801. 

f  Ibid.,  September  16,  1801. 


486  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.       CHAP.  xxn. 

exchanged.  The  price  being  low,  industry  was  suppressed ; 
men  did  not  raise  as  much  as  they  could,  but  as  much  as  they 
needed  for  barter.  This  made  it  necessary  for  the  farmer  who 
wanted  specie  to  export  his  own  produce.  A  few  of  the 
well-to-do,  by  associating  in  companies  of  ten  or  a  dozen,  had 
been  able  to  load  a  flat-boat  and  send  one  of  their  number 
along  as  supercargo  to  Natchez.  But  the  small  planters  could 
not  be  exporters.  One  hundred  of  them  would  hardly  raise 
enough  to  fill  a  boat.  If  they  acted  individually  and  intrusted 
their  produce  to  commission  merchants,  all  manner  of  risks 
were  run.  The  boat  might  sink  on  the  way.  The  book- 
keepers might  swindle  them.  The  merchant  might  cheat 
them.  Even  if  all  went  well,  five  per  cent,  would  have  to  be 
paid  to  the  person  who  brought  back  the  money. 

Some  humble  economist,  reflecting  on  the  evils  of  this  sys- 
tem, proposed  that  the  State  should  interfere.  His  plan  was  for 
the  Legislature  to  name  two  places  of  deposit,  as  Nashville  and 
New  Orleans,  and  for  the  people  to  elect  two  agents  to  manage 
them.  Any  man  who  had  a  barrel  of  pickled  pork,  or  a  hogs- 
head of  tobacco,  or  a  bale  of  cotton,  which  he  wished  to  dispose 
of,  should  be  at  liberty  to  carry  it  to  Nashville,  deposit  it  with 
the  agent,  and  obtain  a  receipt.  When  a  boat-load  had  thus 
been  collected,  the  goods  should  be  sent  in  State  boats  to  the 
agent  at  New  Orleans,  sold  and  accounted  for.  A  small  charge 
for  such  service  would  bring  a  large  revenue  to  the  State,  and 
would  be  gladly  paid  by  the  people.* 

While  demands  were  thus  being  made  in  every  section  of 
the  country  for  better  means  of  communication,  shorter  chan- 
nels of  inland  trade,  less  costly  ways  of  transportation,  an 
agent,  destined  in  time  to  revolutionize  trade,  commerce,  and 
navigation  all  over  the  earth,  was  slowly  creeping  into  notice. 
After  twenty  years  of  cold  indifference  the  people  had  at  last 
found  use  for  the  steamboat.  That  it  was  possible  to  move 
boats  by  steam  had  been  shown  over  and  over  again  both  at 
home  and  abroad.  Hardly  a  section  of  country  could  be  named 
in  the  United  States  where  somebody  had  not,  at  some  time, 

*  A  Commercial  System  submitted  to  the  People  of  Tennessee.  The  system  is 
elaborately  explained  in  fourteen  essays  in  the  Democratic  Clarion,  May  to  Octo- 
ber, 1810. 


1785-1807.  THE  STEAMBOAT.  487 

made  use  of  some  form  of  steamboat.  James  Rumsey  had 
done  so  at  Shepherdstown  on  the  Potomac.  John  Fitch  had 
repeatedly  done  so  on  the  Delaware,  and  William  Longstreet 
on  the  Savannah.  Elijah  Ormsbee  had  shown  one  to  the  people 
of  Pawtucket  and  Providence.  Samuel  Morey  had  travelled 
in  another  from  New  Haven  to  New  York.  Fitch  had  used 
others  on  the  Collect  Pond  in  New  York  city,  and  at  Bards- 
town  on  the  Ohio.  Oliver  Evans  had  exhibited  his  Oruktor 
Amphibolos  to  the  citizens  of  Philadelphia.  John  Stevens 
had  propelled  his  boat  across  the  Hudson.  A  little  money,  a 
little  encouragement,  a  little  patient  endurance  of  failure, 
would  have  made  more  than  one  of  these  ventures  a  success. 
But  the  story  of  the  steamboat  is  the  story  of  every  invention, 
of  every  great  undertaking  the  world  has  yet  seen ;  the  story 
of  steady  growth,  of  gradual  development.  It  is  not  within 
the  power  of  any  man  to  perfect  anything.  The  astonishing 
progress  which  separates  the  clumsy  craft  of  Rumsey  from 
the  Clermont,  and  the  yet  more  marvellous  progress  which 
parts  the  Clermont  from  the  Teutonic,  are  the  results  of  the 
combined  efforts  of  generations  of  men.  Rumsey  struggling 
with  the  sluggish  current  of  the  Potomac ;  Fitch  striving  to 
establish  a  steamboat  line  on  the  Delaware ;  Ormsbee  borrow- 
ing a  boat  from  one  man  and  a  copper  still  from  another 
with  which  to  make  his  experiments ;  Morey  tossing  on  the 
waters  of  Long  Island  Sound ;  Evans  driving  his  Oruktor 
around  the  Centre  Square  at  Philadelphia — these  are  the  men 
who  made  straight  the  way  for  Fulton  and  Stevens.  Every 
man  who  since  that  day  has  produced  a  better  tool,  a  safer 
boiler,  a  more  economical  form  of  grate ;  who  has  improved 
the  steam  engine ;  who  has  found  a  better  way  of  making  steel 
or  welding  iron;  who  has  invented  a  labor-saving  machine; 
who  has  in  any  way  widened  the  domain  of  human  knowledge, 
has  done  his  part  in  the  evolution  of  the  "  ocean  greyhound" 
which  in  our  day  traverses  three  thousand  miles  of  water  in 
less  time  than,  seventy-five  years  ago,  Fulton  spent  in  travers- 
ing three  hundred  miles  of  land. 

Robert  Fulton  was  the  son  of  an  Irish  emigrant,  and  was 
born  in  Pennsylvania  in  1765.  He  grew  up  in  the  town  of 
Lancaster,  and,  his  biographer  declares,  showed  at  an  early 


488  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxii. 

age  a  marked  taste  for  drawing,  painting,  and  inventing.  So 
strong  were  these  propensities  that  at  twenty  he  went  to  Phila- 
delphia and  supported  himself  for  some  years  painting  minia- 
tures and  making  such  drawings  as  the  mechanics  from  time  to 
time  required.  After  a  long  struggle  between  what  seems  to 
have  been  a  desire  to  be  a  great  artist  and  a  desire  to  be  a  great 
inventor,  his  artistic  tastes  triumphed,  and  he  went  to  London, 
where  he  fell  under  the  influence  of  Benjamin  West.  From 
London  he  went  to  Paris,  and  took  up  his  abode  in  the  family 
of  Joel  Barlow. 

At  Paris,  Fulton's  mechanical  tastes  soon  got  the  mastery 
over  his  artistic  tastes,  and  he  began  to  turn  his  attention  seri- 
ously to  diving-boats,  marine  torpedoes,  and  steamboats.  By 
1800  his  ideas  concerning  the  steamboat  had  been  so  far  devel- 
oped that  he  asked  Yolney  to  lay  before  Napoleon  a  plan  for 
moving  vessels  with  steam.  Yolney  sent  the  communication 
to  the  Minister  of  Marine,  who  sent  it  to  the  First  Consul,  who 
ordered  the  Minister  to  treat  with  Fulton.  A  proposition 
was  thereupon  made  by  the  Minister  of  Marine  to  spend  ten 
thousand  francs  on  experiments  to  be  conducted  in  the  harbor 
of  Brest.  Napoleon  agreeing  to  this,  the  plan  of  Fulton  was 
referred  to  the  Institute  for  examination,  and  was  never  heard 
of  again  for  three  years.  It  was  at  this  point  that  Fulton  fell 
in  with  Robert  K.  Livingston,  who  had  just  come  out  as 
United  States  Minister  to  France,  and  to  whose  friendship  and 
to  whose  purse  is  to  be  ascribed  no  small  measure  of  his  success. 

The  interest  of  Livingston  in  steam  navigation  had  early 
been  awakened,  and  he  had  at  his  own  cost  built  a  boat  and 
made  experiments  on  the  Hudson  river.  Confident  of  suc- 
cess, he  obtained  from  the  Legislature  of  New  York  a  grant 
of  the  exclusive  right  to  navigate  the  waters  of  New  York 
State  by  steam.  The  condition  of  the  grant  was  that  he  should, 
within  one  year,  move  a  boat  of  twenty  tons  by  steam  at  the 
rate  of  four  miles  an  hour.*  He  failed  to  do  so.  But  the 
work  went  on,  and  when  in  1801  Jefferson  sent  him  as  Minis- 
ter to  France,  he  was  still  engaged  in  experimenting. 

Though  his  labors  were  thus  cut  short  in  America,  they 

*  Act  of  March  27,  1798. 


1806.  EGBERT  FULTON".  489 

were  continued  in  France,  where  he  seems  for  the  first  time  to 
have  met  Fulton,  and  where  the  two  formed  the  partnership 
which  proved  so  fruitful  of  great  results.  Encouraged  by 
what  Fulton  had  done,  and  still  believing  that  a  steamboat 
could  be  successful,  Livingston  obtained  another  grant  from 
the  ]STew  York  Legislature  in  1803.*  The  monopoly  which 
in  1798  had  been  given  conditionally  to  Livingston,  and  not 
secured,  was  now  extended  to  Fulton  and  Livingston  if  they 
should  within  two  years,  by  means  of  steam,  move  a  twenty- 
ton  boat  four  miles  an  hour  against  the  current  of  the  Hud- 
son. As  no  time  was  to  be  lost,  preparations  were  made  at 
once  for  experiments  on  the  Seine.  That  intelligence  of  these 
preparations  came  to  the  ears  of  Napoleon,  and  recalled  to 
mind  his  order  of  1801,  is  quite  likely,  for  he  now  command- 
ed the  Minister  of  Marine  to  send  him  the  project  submitted 
by  Fulton  in  1800.  Having  read  it  in  his  camp  at  Boulogne, 
he  ordered  that  a  commission  should  be  chosen  from  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Institute,  and  that  they  should  examine  the  project 
immediately.  His  letter  is  dated  July  twenty-first,  1804.  On 
August  eighth  the  people  of  Paris  witnessed  the  experiment. 

The  learned  members  of  the  Institute  seem  to  have  been 
but  little  impressed.  To  Fulton  and  Livingston  the  trial  was 
most  encouraging.  They  determined  to  persevere,  and  de- 
spatched an  order  to  "Watt  and  Boulton  at  Birmingham  for  an 
engine  to  be  delivered  in  the  United  States.  Livingston  soon 
after  returned  to  New  York.  Fulton  went  over  to  London, 
and  two  years  were  consumed  in  endeavoring  to  persuade  the 
English  Government  to  adopt  his  submarine  torpedo.  Even 
in  1806,  when  he  came  back  to  the  United  States,  f  it  was  the 
torpedo,  not  the  steamboat,  that  occupied  his  thought.  The 
moment,  therefore,  his  foot  touched  land,  he  hastened  to  Wash- 
ington, and  passed  the  winter  of  1807  explaining  models  and 
lecturing  on  the  torpedo  to  the  President  and  the  Secretary  of 
the  Navy. 

The  steamboat,  however,  was  not  forgotten.  "When  Ful- 
ton reached  New  York  in  December,  1806,  he  found  the  en- 
gine built  for  him  in  England  lying  on  a  wharf  near  the 

*  April  5,  1803.  f  December  13,  1806. 


490  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

Battery.  There  it  had  been  for  many  months;  no  freight 
had  been  paid,  and  the  agent  of  the  ship  that  brought  the  en- 
gine over  was  holding  it  till  the  bill  was  settled.  The  time 
granted  by  the  Legislature  in  1803  within  which  a  boat  was 
to  be  moved  by  steam  had  expired  in  1805.  But  the  arrival 
of  the  engine,  the  arrival  of  Fulton,  and  the  appearance  on 
the  waters  of  the  Hudson  a  few  months  before  of  the  steam- 
boat Phoenix,  renewed  the  interest  of  Livingston  in  steam 
navigation.  The  freight  on  the  engine  was  paid,  the  act  of 
1803  was  revived  *  for  two  years,  and,  while  Fulton  was  busy 
with  his  torpedoes,  a  boat  named  the  Clermont  was  built  and 
launched  on  the  East  river.  She  was  one  hundred  and  thirty 
feet  long,  eighteen  feet  wide,  was  provided  with  a  mast  and 
sail,  and  was  decked  over  for  a  short  distance  at  stem  and 
stern.  In  the  undecked  part  were  placed  the  boiler  and  the 
engine,  carefully  set  in  masonry.  On  either  side  was  a  wheel 
fifteen  feet  in  diameter,  with  buckets  four  feet  wide  and  dip- 
ping two  feet  into  the  water. 

Thus  equipped,  the  little  craft  moved  from  her  wharf  at 
one  o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  August  seventh,  1807,  and 
began  the  longest  and  the  most  memorable  voyage  which  up 
to  that  hour  had  been  made  by  steam.  Her  wheels  had  no 
guards.  Her  rudder  could  not  do  the  work  expected.  The 
weight  of  the  engine,  the  boiler,  the  masonry,  and  the  cold- 
water  cistern  sank  the  vessel  deep  in  the  water.  Yet  she 
traversed  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  between  New  York 
and  Albany  in  thirty-two  hours,  and  won  for  her  owners  the 
sole  right  to  use  steam  on  the  lakes  and  rivers  of  New  York 
State  for  twenty  years  to  come. 

After  a  few  more  trips  had  been  made,  the  Clermont  was 
withdrawn  and  during  the  winter  was  almost  rebuilt.  Her 
length  was  increased.  Her  hull  was  decked  from  stem  to 
stern.  Under  it  two  cabins  were  built  and  provided  with  a 
double  row  of  berths  and  with  every  convenience  known  to 
travellers  on  the  best  of  packet  boats.  Her  name  was  changed 
to  the  North  River,  and  with  the  return  of  spring  she  began 
to  run  regularly  up  and  down  the  Hudson.  Success  was  now 

*  Act  of  April  6,  1807. 


1809.  THE  PHCENIX  AND  THE  RARITAtf.  491 

assured,  the  Legislature  confirmed  and  extended  the  monop- 
oly,* and  from  1808  the  steamboat  came  slowly  but  steadily 
into  general  use.  The  summer  of  1809  saw  one  on  Lake 
Champlain,f  another  on  the  Raritan,  and  a  third  on  the 
Delaware.  This  was  the  Phrenix,  built  by  John  Cox  Ste- 
vens at  Hoboken,  in  1806,  and  intended  to  ply  as  a  passenger 
boat  between  New  Brunswick  and  New  York.  But  the  mo- 
nopoly held  by  Fulton  and  Livingston  prevented  the  vessel 
entering  the  waters  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  New  York 
State,  and  Stevens,  sending  her  by  sea  to  the  Delaware,  ran 
her  between  Philadelphia  and  Trenton. :{:  A  year  later  an- 
other made  three  trips  a  week  between  New  Brunswick  and 
New  York.  The  route  between  the  two  chief  cities  of  the 
country  was  thus  partly  by  land  and  partly  by  water,  and  was 
strongly  recommended  to  such  as  wished  to  avoid  dust,  mos- 
quitoes, and  a  dangerous  ferry.  The  traveller  could  leave 
Philadelphia  at  seven  o'clock  on  any  Monday,  Wednesday,  or 
Friday  morning  by  the  Phosnix,  enjoy  a  cool  and  pleasant 
sail  up  the  Delaware,  breakfast  and  dine  on  board,  and  reach 
Bordentown  at  one.  From  Bordentown  he  went  by  stage  to 
New  Brunswick,  where  he  must  spend  the  night.  At  six  the 
next  morning  the  steamboat  Raritan  carried  him  to  New 
York.* 

The  Raritan  had  begun  her  career  in  1809  and  had  startled 
the  travelling  public  by  bursting  her  boiler  one  day  at  Am- 
boy.  The  engineer  had  carelessly  forgotten  to  take  the 
weights  off  the  safety  valve.  As  nobody  was  hurt  but  a 
drunken  boat  hand  who  fell  into  a  pool  of  scalding  water,  the 
company  explained  in  a  long  card  that  boiler  explosions  were 
the  result  solely  of  gross  carelessness ;  that  they  were  incon- 
venient, but  could  never  do  any  harm.  ||  Repairs  were  made 
as  quickly  as  possible  and  the  trips  continued  till  the  ice  made 
them  dangerous.  In  1810  the  Raritan  and  the  Phosnix  ran 

*  Act  of  April  11,  1808. 

•j-  From  Skeenesboro  to  St.  John.     Montreal  Gazette,  July  3,  1809.     Balti- 
more Evening  Post,  August  3,  1809.     True  American,  July  25,  1809. 
J  United  States  Gazette,  July  6,  1809. 

*  Aurora,  October  19,  1810. 

[  True  American,  July  18,  1809. 


492  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.       CHAP.  xxn. 

in  connection  with  each  other  as  parts  of  one  route.  It  was 
then  possible,  at  a  cost  of  five  dollars  in  money  and  twenty- 
six  hours  in  time,  to  traverse  thrice  a  week  the  ninety  miles 
which  separate  Philadelphia  from  New  York.  This  distance 
is  now  passed  over  sixty-six  times  a  day  by  the  passenger 
trains  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  in  less  than  one  hundred 
and  fifty  minutes.  The  comfort  of  the  boats  more  than  made 
up  for  loss  of  time  and  drew  away  so  many  passengers  that 
the  stage  line  was  forced  to  renewed  exertions.  A  fourth 
coachee  was  therefore  put  on  which  left  Philadelphia  at  eight 
every  morning  and  brought  up  at  Paulus  Hook  the  same 
evening.  Seven  was  the  greatest  number  of  passengers  car- 
ried, at  a  cost  of  eight  dollars  each.* 

The  profits  of  the  Raritan  trade,  twelve  shillings  for  each 
passenger,  went  to  the  Fulton  and  Livingston  company.  This, 
it  may  well  be  supposed,  provoked  the  wrath  of  the  people  of 
New  Jersey,  and  in  the  next  Legislature  the  monopoly  of 
Fulton  was  boldly  attacked.  The  demand  was  made  that  if 
the  citizens  of  New  Jersey  could  not  build  a  steamboat  and 
send  it  across  the  Hudson  to  New  York  without  leave  of 
Fulton  and  Livingston,  then  no  boat  having  the  license  of 
Fulton  should  enter  the  waters  of  New  Jersey.  To  this  ex- 
treme the  Legislature  was  not  willing  to  go.  Yet  it  passed  an 
act  which  greatly  enraged  the  monopolists.  New  York  in 
her  law  f  provided  that  if  anybody  should  navigate  a  steam- 
boat within  her  jurisdiction  without  a  license,  the  parties 
aggrieved  might  seize  the  boat,  engine,  tackle,  and  apparel. 
Citing  this,  New  Jersey  ordered  that  if  anybody  did  seize 
such  a  boat  belonging  to  a  citizen  of  New  Jersey,  and  lying 
on  the  waters  between  the  two  States,  the  owners  might  seize, 
in  return,  any  boat  belonging  to  any  citizen  of  New  York 

*  This  line  sent  four  coaches  each  way  daily.  The  first  was  The  Expedition, 
which  made  the  run  in  about  twelve  hours.  Fare,  $8.  The  second  was  The 
Diligence,  which  was  twenty-six  hours  on  the  way.  Passengers  lodged  at  Rahway. 
Fare,  $5.50.  The  third  was  the  Accommodation  Stage,  which  left  Philadelphia  at 
ten  in  the  forenoon,  lodged  the  passengers  at  Brunswick,  and  reached  Paulus 
Hook  next  day  at  noon.  Fare,  $4.50.  The  fourth  was  the  Mail  Stage,  which 
left  at  one  in  the  afternoon  and,  travelling  all  night,  entered  Paulus  Hook  at  six 
the  next  morning.  Fare,  $8.50. 

f  Laws  of  New  York,  Act  of  April  11,  1808. 


1811.        MONOPOLY  OF  LIVINGSTON  AND  FULTON.          493 

found  in  any  waters  of  New  Jersey.*  The  New  York  com- 
pany then  threatened  to  withdraw  their  boat,  place  it  on  the 
Sound,  grant  no  licenses  to  run  steamboats  to  New  Jersey, 
stop  the  ferry  at  Paulus  Hook,  and  ruin  New  Brunswick,  f 
Happily,  these  threats  were  never  carried  out.  The  New 
York  company  had  trouble  enough  without  seeking  more.  A 
rival  sprung  up,  and  a  boat  called  the  Hope  was  soon  running 
between  New  York  and  Albany  without  a  license.  Deter- 
mined to  make  an  example,  Fulton  and  Livingston  applied  to 
Chancellor  Lansing  for  an  injunction.  The  application  came 
on  to  be  heard  at  the  October  term,  1811,  of  the  Court  of 
Chancery,  and  was  denied.  Livingston  and  Fulton  then  ap- 
pealed to  the  Court  of  Errors,  which  reversed  the  decision 
below,  held  that  the  act  was  constitutional,  and  granted  the 
injunction. :£ 

At  Philadelphia,  Stevens  meanwhile  .was  striving  to  per- 
suade investors  and  speculators  to  subscribe  to  the  stock  of  a 
steamboat  line  to  Baltimore.  He  proposed  to  raise  seventy- 
five  thousand  dollars  and  build  three  steamboats,  of  which  the 
stockholders  should  own  one  half  and  he  the  other.  One  was 
to  run  on  the  Delaware  between  Philadelphia  and  Wilmington, 
and  two  on  Chesapeake  Bay  between  Baltimore  and  the  head 
of  the  Elk.*  Subscriptions,  however,  came  in  slowly,  and 
while  the  project  was  still  on  paper  the  first  steamboat  west 
of  the  mountains  went  down  from  Pittsburg  to  New  Orleans, 
and  became  a  regular  trader  between  Natchez  and  the  Cres- 
cent city.  The  next  year  two  steam  ferry-boats  were  in  use. 
One,  owned  by  Livingston  and  Fulton,  carried  passengers  be- 

*  Laws  of  New  Jersey,  Act  of  January  15,  1811. 

f  New  York  Mercantile  Advertiser.   True  American,  February  8,  1811. 
$  Livingston  vs.  Van  Ingen,  9  Johns,  507. 

*  The  cost  of  operating  the  three  boats  Stevens  estimated  at  $21,000.     As 
proof  that  this  charge  could  be  met  and  dividends  paid,  he  produced  certain 
statistics,  which  are  of  interest.     Each  boat  would  make  two  hundred  and  eighty 
trips  per  year,  and  carry  each  trip  twenty  tons  of  freight,  yielding  $60,  or  $22,400 
per  year  for  all.     This  would  pay  running  expenses.     But  there  would  be  ten 
through  passengers  each  way  daily  at  $3.50,  or  for  the  year  $21,000.     There 
would,  again,  be  ten  passengers  each  way  between  Wilmington  and  Philadelphia 
at  $1.25  each,  or  $7,000  for  all.     A  total  revenue  of  $28,000  would  thus  remain 
to  be  divided  among  stockholders. 


494  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

tween  Paulus  Hook  and  New  York.  The  other  plied  between 
Philadelphia  and  the  public-houses  where  Camden  now  stands, 
and  on  moonlight  nights  made  trips  down  the  Delaware  with 
pleasure-parties. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  that  while  our  ancestors  were 
thus  being  taught  the  possibilities  of  steam  navigation  they 
were  shown  a  practical  illustration  of  the  usefulness  of  rail- 
ways. So  far  as  is  now  known,  the  first  of  these  roads  ever 
used  in  the  United  States  was  built  down  the  western  slope 
of  Beacon  Hill  in  Boston.  It  was  intended  for  the  easy 
transportation  of  gravel  from  the  top  of  the  hill  to  Charles 
Street,  then  being  filled  up  and  graded.  In  length  it  was  a 
quarter  of  a  mile,  and  consisted  of  two  tracks  so  arranged  that 
as  the  full  cars  ran  down  one  they  pulled  the  empty  cars  up 
the  other.*  This  gravity  road  was  but  temporary,  and  was 
soon  removed.  The  credit  of  constructing  the  first  permanent 
tramway  in  America  may  therefore  be  rightly  given  to  Thomas 
Leiper.  He  was  the  owner  of  a  fine  quarry  not  far  from 
Philadelphia,  and  was  much  concerned  to  find  an  easy  mode  of 
carrying  stone  to  tide-water.  That  a  railway  would  accomplish 
this  end  he  seems  to  have  had  no  doubt.  To  test  the  matter, 
and  at  the  same  time  afford  a  public  exhibition  of  the  merits 
of  tramways,  he  built  a  temporary  track  in  the  yard  of  the 
Bull's  Head  Tavern  in  Philadelphia,  f  The  tramway  was 
some  sixty  feet  long,  had  a  grade  of  one  inch  and  a  half  to  the 
yard,  and  up  it,  to  the  amazement  of  spectators,  one  horse 
used  to  draw  a  four-wheeled  wagon  loaded  with  a  weight  of 
ten  thousand  pounds.  This  was  in  the  summer  of  1809.  Be- 
fore autumn  laborers  were  at  work  building  a  railway  from 
the  quarry  to  the  nearest  landing,  a  distance  of  three  quarters 
of  a  mile.J  In  the  spring  of  1810  the  road  began  to  be  used 
and  continued  in  use  during  eighteen  years.* 

The  praise  to  be  awarded  Thomas  Leiper  is  that  of  mak- 
ing the  first  practical  test  of  tramways  in  the  United  States. 

*  Built  by  Stephen  Whitney  in  1807. 
t  Aurora,  September  27,  1809. 

J  Ibid.,  September  28,  1809,  and  October  29,  1809. 

*  A  Short  Account  of  the  First  Permanent  Tramway  in  America,  by  R.  P. 
Robins.     Proceedings  of  the  Engineers'  Club  of  Philadelphia,  vol.  v,  No.  5. 


1811.  OLIVER  EVANS.  495 

The  idea  was  in  no  sense  his.  Indeed,  it  may  be  that  his 
attention  was  first  called  to  railways  by  the  description  of  one 
which  Latrobe  sent  to  Gallatin,  and  which  Gallatin  trans- 
mitted to  Congress  in  his  famous  report.  But  even  Latrobe 
was  not  the  first  to  suggest  the  idea,  for  it  had  long  been  in 
the  mind  of  Oliver  Evans.  Of  all  our  early  inventors,  Evans 
was  the  most  ingenious,  the  most  versatile,  and  the  most 
harshly  used.  His  life  was  one  prolonged  effort  to  show  a 
doubting  generation  the  many  ways  in  which  steam  might  be 
used  as  a  motive  power.  He  applied  it  to  mills  for  sawing 
marble,  for  grinding  plaster,  for  cutting  lumber ;  he  repeatedly 
offered  to  apply  it  to  the  movement  of  wagons  on  land  and 
boats  on  water,  and  in  his  Oruktor  Amphibolos  gave  a  no 
mean  demonstration  of  what  he  could  do.  He  is  beyond 
question  the  father  of  the  steam  flouring  mill,  and  had  more 
than  once  asserted  that  he  could  drive  wagons  by  steam,  on 
railways,  at  the  rate  of  fifteen  miles  an  hour.  So  also  did 
John  Stevens.  But  these  were  men  far  in  advance  of  their 
time.  That  the  mass  of  their  countrymen  should  comprehend 
what  they  had  just  begun  to  perceive  was  not  to  be  expected. 
Evans  described  the  situation  truly  when  he  declared  that  it 
was  too  much  to  expect  the  monstrous  leap  from  bad  roads  to 
railways  for  steam  carriages  to  be  taken  at  once.  One  step  in 
a  generation,  he  said,  was  enough.  And  if  the  present  would 
adopt  canals,  the  next  might  try  railways  with  horse-power, 
and  the  third  make  use  of  railways  with  carriages  moved  by 
steam. 

Such  enterprises,  to  be  successful,  required  skilled  workmen 
and  capital.  The  workmen  were  not  in  the  country.  The 
capital  was  just  then  being  largely  invested  in  manufactur- 
ing ventures.  For  this  the  long  embargo  and  the  restrictive 
measures  that  followed  are  responsible.  It  has  often  been 
said,  and  truly,  that  the  protective  system  of  the  United  States 
began  on  the  fourth  day  of  July,  1789,  when  Washington 
signed  the  first  of  our  many  tariff  acts.  The  day  was  well 
chosen,  for  that  act  was  a  second  declaration  of  independence. 
It  was  a  formal  statement  that  henceforth  domestic  manufact- 
ures were  to  be  encouraged  in  the  United  States,  that  hence- 
forth we  were  to  be  industrially  independent,  and  that  the 


496  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxii. 

goods,  wares,  and  merchandise  of  foreign  nations  should  come 
into  our  ports  on  such  terms  as  best  suited  our  interests.  Be- 
yond this  the  act  as  a  protective  measure  is  of  no  importance. 
Manufactures  as  we  know  them  had  yet  to  be  established. 

The  framing  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was 
the  direct  and  immediate  consequence  of  the  ruin  of  every 
kind  of  trade,  commerce,  and  industry  that  followed  the  close 
of  the  Revolution.  Nothing  did  so  much  to  break  down  the 
old  confederation  as  its  inability  to  regulate  trade  and  encour- 
age manufactures.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the  mo- 
ment Congress  met  under  the  Constitution  urgent  calls  were 
made  for  the  immediate  exercise  of  the  ample  powers  that 
had  been  given  it. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  the  petitioners  said  they  had  seen 
with  deep  regret  manufactures  decline  and  imports  increase. 
They  had  seen  the  people  turn  away  from  the  products  of 
their  own  countrymen  and  waste  their  wealth  in  buying  from 
foreigners  articles  which,  with  a  very  little  encouragement,  could 
be  as  well  made  at  home.  In  the  hope  of  checking  this  evil, 
calls  for  help  had  been  made  on  the  Legislatures  of  several 
States,  and  the  calls  had  not  been  in  vain.  Laws  had  been 
passed ;  duties  had  been  laid ;  everything  had  been  done  that 
could  be  done  to  stop  the  rage  for  foreign  manufactures. 
The  result,  however,  had  clearly  shown  that  nothing  effectual 
could  be  accomplished  till  one  strong  and  vigorous  Govern- 
ment ruled  the  whole  country.  That  government  now  existed. 
Sole  power  had  been  given  it  to  regulate  trade  and  lay  duties 
on  imports,  and  this  power  the  petitioners  begged  it  to  use 
without  delay.  The  state  of  the  country  was  melancholy. 
Manufactures  were  expiring.  Trade  was  languishing,  lands 
and  houses  were  falling  in  value,  and  the  poor  increasing  in 
number  for  want  of  work  to  do.  But  the  encouragement  and 
protection  of  American  manufactures  by  a  wise  imposition  of 
duties  would  stop  all  this,  dispel  the  gloom,  and  raise  the  flag- 
ging hopes  of  the  petitioners.  Congress  heard  the  prayer,  and 
before  the  session  closed  passed  the  first  tariff  for  the  protec- 
tion and  encouragement  of  manufactures.  Thenceforth  for 
many  years  to  come  the  matter  of  protection  never  failed  to  be 
before  the  House  in  one  form  or  another  at  every  session.  In 


1793.  RISE  OF  THE  PROTECTIVE  SYSTEM.  497 

1793  Washington  mentioned  it  in  his  speech  to  Congress. 
The  safety  and  interests  of  a  free  people  required,  he  said, 
that  they  should  promote  such  manufactures  as  would  make 
them  independent  of  others  for  necessary  and,  above  all,  for 
military  supplies.  The  House  sent  his  words  to  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  with  instructions  to  report  on  the  means  of 
promoting  manufactures,  and  at  the  next  session  listened  to 
Hamilton's  famous  report.  Encouraged  by  this  manifestation 
of  the  good-will  of  the  House,  men  of  every  trade,  of  every 
occupation,  the  moment  business  grew  dull,  cried  out  for 
Government  protection.  Now  it  was  the  New  England  ship- 
masters at  the  port  of  Charleston  demanding  a  higher  ton- 
nage duty  on  foreign  ships.*  Now  it  was  the  tan-bark  gath- 
erers of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania  asking 
for  duty  on  leather  that  they  might  raise  the  price  of  bark.f 
Now  it  was  the  manufacturers  of  twine  and  cordage  seeking 
for  a  drawback  on  their  exported  wares  equal  to  duty  on  the 
imported  hemp  from  which  the  wares  exported  were  manu- 
factured. Now  it  was  the  printers  asking  for  the  free  im- 
portation of  paper,  which  was  refused.  ^  Now  the  iron  manu- 
facturers asking  for  the  free  importation  of  bar  iron,  which 
was  granted.* 

To  this  time  every  petition  save  that  of  the  printers  had 
been  reported  favorably.  But  in  1794  the  belief  was  general 
that  the  increase  in  the  import  duties,  which  had  taken  place 
since  1789,  gave  protection  enough,  and  the  prayers  of  the 
paint-makers  in  1794 ;  of  the  rope-makers  in  1795  ;  of  a  cot- 
ton-mill owner ;  a  bolting-cloth  weaver ;  a  silk  manufacturer ; 
a  glass-maker  and  a  host  of  hat-makers ;  of  the  tallow  chand- 
lers ;  the  rope-walkers  and  a  calico-printer  in  1797 ;  of  the 
coal-mine  owners  of  Virginia,  and  the  rum-distillers  of  Rhode  I 
Island  in  1798 — were  all  reported  to  the  House  unfavorably. 
There  were  applications  for  relief  for  particular  industries  or 
for  individual  men.  At  the  close  of  John  Adams's  term,  how- 
ever, an  effort  was  made  for  a  general  increase  on  duties  for 

*  Senate,  February  16,  1791. 

f  House  of  Representatives,  February  23,  1792. 
\  February  15,  1793. 

*  March  12,  1794. 
VOL.  in. — 33 


498  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

the  purpose  of  encouraging  manufactures.  But  this  also  was 
reported  unfavorably. 

With  the  new  administration  came  a  new  policy,  and  for  a 
few  years  manufacturers  had  but  to  ask  to  receive  protection. 
Much  of  this  change  of  view  was  due  to  a  change  of  condition. 
The  war  in  Europe  ceased ;  the  protection  afforded  by  the  war 
ended  ;  trade  went  back  to  its  old  channels,  and  immense  quan- 
tities of  foreign  goods  were  poured  in  upon  the  country.  In 
1802  the  people  of  Kentucky  protested  that  the  flour  trade 
they  had  enjoyed  during  the  war  was  ruined  by  the  peace ; 
that  prices  had  fallen,  that  they  could  not  compete  with  the 
East,  and  that  they  had  in  despair  taken  up  the  cultivation  of 
hemp,  and  prayed  for  a  protecting  duty.  The  iron-masters  of 
New  Jersey  declared  that  they  were  broken  men  unless  the 
bar  iron  of  Europe,  so  cheaply  imported  since  the  peace,  was 
shut  out  by  a  high  duty.  In  1803  the  members  of  fifteen  dif- 
ferent trades  petitioned  for  protection,  and  the  Committee  on 
•Commerce  and  Manufactures  strongly  urged  the  House  to 
•call  on  Gallatin  to  frame  a  system  of  duties  that  would  en- 
tourage manufactures  without  increasing  the  revenue.  The 
House  so  ordered,  and  early  in  1804  Gallatin  reported.  But 
the  importunity  and  number  of  the  petitioners  was  so  great  that 
the  Committee,  without  waiting  for  Gallatin,  brought  in  a 
plan  of  their  own.  That  same  year  the  Mediterranean  Fund 
was  instituted,  and  all  ad  valorem  duties  were  increased  two 
and  a  half  per  cent.  This  the  House  seems  to  have  thought 
was  ample  protection,  and  during  four  years  no  petitions  were 
favorably  considered.  They  were,  moreover,  few  in  number, 
for  the  renewal  of  war  removed  that  distress  which  so  many 
of  the  petitioners  declared  had  been  produced  by  peace.  For- 
eign markets  were  again  opened  to  American  products.  The 
carrying  trade  reached  enormous  proportions,  foreign  goods 
•were  cheap,  and  were  again  imported  till  the  embargo  shut 
them  out  entirely. 

So  far  the  tariff  acts,  save  as  precedents,  amounted  to  noth- 
ing. The  protection  was  very  mild.  The  price  of  foreign 
goods  was  very  low,  and  their  importation  was  not  checked 
by  customs  duties.  The  price  brought  by  American  produce 
in  foreign  markets  was  very  high.  In  1T95  and  1796  flour 


1807.  KISE  OF  MANUFACTUKES.  499 

\ 

for  exportation  sold  at  the  place  of  shipment  for  twelve  dollars 
and  forty  cents  per  barrel.  There  was,  therefore,  more  money 
to  be  made  in  raising  wheat  than  in  manufacturing  cloths  or 
twisting  ropes.  Capital,  enterprise,  everything  which  under 
other  conditions  might  have  been  used  to  build  up  manufact- 
ures, was  drawn  aside  to  raise  wheat  and  carry  on  commerce. 
An  enormous  carrying  trade  passed  into  our  hands,  and  the 
exports  of  foreign  produce  increased  in  value  from  five  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  in  1791  to  forty-six  millions  in  1801.  The 
value  of  our  gross  exports  in  1791  was  nineteen  millions.  In 
1801  it  was  ninety-four  millions.  "We  imported  goods  and 
wares  worth  twenty-nine  millions  in  1791,  and  merchandise 
worth  one  hundred  and  eleven  millions  ten  years  later.  Noth- 
ing was  made  at  home  which  could  be  brought  from  abroad ; 
and  the  cheapness  of  foreign  goods  rendered  it  possible  to 
bring  from  abroad  almost  anything  that  was  wanted.  The 
peace  of  Amiens  threatened  to  destroy  this  great  trade,  and  in 
two  years  it  fell  off  one  half.  But  on  the  renewal  of  war  it 
went  on  more  briskly  than  ever,  and  when  the  Berlin  decree, 
the  Milan  decree,  the  long  embargo,  and  the  orders  in  council 
checked  it  in  1807,  our  exports  of  foreign  produce  were  sixty 
millions,  of  domestic  produce  one  hundred  and  eight  millions, 
and  our  imports  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  millions. 

A  part  of  the  people  viewed  this  trade  with  delight.  It 
enriched  the  merchant.  It  enriched  the  ship-builder.  It  gave 
the  farmers  near  the  seaboard  a  market  for  all  they  could  pro- 
duce. It  filled  the  strong-boxes  of  the  Treasury  fuller  and 
fuller  every  year,  and  enabled  Gallatin  to  pay  off  twenty-four 
millions  of  the  public  debt.  But  it  produced  other  results 
upon  which  another  part  of  the  people  looked  with  horror. 
"With  foreign  goods  came  in  foreign  tastes,  foreign  habits,  for- 
eign ideas.  As  our  relations  with  England  and  France  grew 
more  and  more  complicated,  and  the  day  seemed  near  when 
these  difficulties  would  have  to  be  settled  by  war,  patriots  took 
alarm  at  our  dependence  on  Europe.  "What,  said  they,  will 
become  of  a  people  who  can  not  cast  a  cannon,  nor  weave  a 
blanket,  nor  so  much  as  make  a  flannel  shirt  or  a  pair  of 
woollen  socks?  During  1805  and  1807  the  feeling  that  it  was 
high  time  to  set  up  home  manufactures  was  especially  strong 


500  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxir. 

and  wide-spread.     The  moment  the  embargo  was  laid,  it  broke 
forth  all  over  the  country. 

At  Baltimore,  on  the  last  day  of  December,  1807,  a  citizen 
issued  a  call  for  a  meeting  of  merchants  at  the  Coffee-House. 
Many  came,  and,  after  considering  a  plan  to  form  a  company 
for  spinning  cotton  and  wool,  and  making  machinery  for 
others  to  use,  referred  the  matter  to  a  committee.  The  ad- 
dress of  the  committee  to  the  people  of  Maryland  began  by 
stating  what  were  then  considered  by  the  opposers  of  manufact- 
ures as  sound  objections.  Men,  they  would  say,  able  to  make 
labor-saving  machinery  can  not  be  had  in  America.  If  fac- 
tories were  set  up,  where  would  you  seek  for  superintendents 
to  manage  them  ?  Capital,  again,  is  hard  to  get ;  the  price  of 
unskilled  labor  is  very  high ;  raw  material  is  scarce,  and  for- 
eigners have  full  control  of  the  woollen  and  cotton  market. 
These  objections  the  committee  took  up  one  by  one  and 
answered,  and  ended  by  strongly  urging  the  formation  of  a 
company.  The  answer  and  appeal  were  so  well  received  that 
the  originators  of  the  scheme  were  encouraged  to  go  on,  step 
by  step,  till  in  March,  1808,  the  subscription  books  of  the 
Union  Manufacturing  Company  of  Maryland  were  opened  in 
the  Coffee-House  at  Baltimore.  Ten  thousand  shares  at  fifty 
dollars  each  were  offered  and  soon  taken.  A  rage  for  manu- 
facturing now  swept  the  country.  The  Philadelphia  Premium 
Society  offered  money  prizes  for  the  best  specimens  of  broad- 
cloth, forest  cloth,  and  fancy  cloth  for  vests,  raven  duck,  and 
thread  in  imitation  of  that  made  at  Dundee.  The  people  of 
Charleston  organized  the  South  Carolina  Homespun  Company, 
and  sold  a  thousand  shares  in  one  day.  The  men  of  Rich- 
mond decided  to  set  up  a  mill  for  spinning  cotton,  and  wrote 
to  Providence  for  information  as  to  how  they  should  proceed. 
When  the  books  of  the  Petersburg  Manufacturing  Society 
were  opened,  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  were  subscribed  in 
a  few  hours.  Many  of  the  people  of  the  town  were  already 
wearing  homespun.  To  make  the  movement  yet  more  popu- 
lar, the  Petersburg  Troop  of  Cavalry  decided  to  appear  on  July 
fourth  clad  in  white  Virginia  cloth.  The  Culpepper  Society  for 
the  Encouragement  of  Domestic  Manufactures  offered  prizes 
for  the  best  piece  of  home-made  linen,  for  the  best  piece  of  cot- 


1808.  EISE  OF  MANUFACTURES.  501 

ton  cloth,  and  the  best  piece  of  woollen  cloth.  In  Princess  Anne 
County  and  in  Brunswick  County  like  societies  were  founded. 
The  members  of  the  Patriotic  Society  of  Smith  County,  Ten- 
nessee, declared  themselves  opposed  to  the  use  of  foreign-made 
goods ;  opposed  to  the  citation  of  English  common  law  and 
precedents  in  the  courts ;  promised  to  labor  for  the  abolition 
of  these  two  evils,  and  offered  ten  dollars  for  the  best  set  of 
buck-handled  knives  and  forks  of  home  manufacture.*  At 
Philadelphia  a  number  of  manufacturers  proposed  to  encour- 
age the  rising  spirit  by  a  semi-annual  dinner  to  which  any 
mechanic  or  artisan  of  good  character  could  come.  Religious 
persuasion,  political  faith,  nationality,  were  all  to  be  forgotten 
on  the  occasion,  and  nothing  remembered  but  the  progress  of 
domestic  arts  and  manufactures.  The  first  dinner  was  in  No- 
vember, and  to  mark  it  as  an  event  the  company  sat  down  in  the 
room  which  had  long  been  used  by  the  United  States  Senate. 
Just  as  the  year  closed,  a  stock  company  was  formed  at  Balti- 
more to  build  a  warehouse  for  the  reception  and  sale  of  home- 
made goods  of  every  sort.  Whoever  could  make  straw  bon- 
nets, or  knit  worsted  mittens  and  socks,  or  spin  flax  and  wool, 
or  weave  linsey-woolsey,  or  produce  anything  marketable, 
could  then  send  his  wares  to  the  rooms  of  the  society,  where 
sales  would  be  made  on  commission.  If  necessary,  a  small  ad- 
vance would  be  allowed  the  maker.  Every  true  and  patriotic 
American,  it  was  confidently  believed,  would  come  to  the 
warerooms  and  buy.f 

In  the  great  cities  the  people  formed  associations  which 
they  called  Societies  for  the  Encouragement  of  Domestic 
Manufactures.  Each  man  and  woman  who  joined  one  of 
these  was  pledged  to  wear  no  garment  of  which  the  raw  ma- 
terial was  not  grown  and  the  fabric  made  within  the  bounda- 
ries of  the  United  States.  At  Charleston  the  '76  Association, 
in  order  to  rival  the  Society  for  the  Encouragement  of  Do- 
mestic Industries,  voted  to  pay  fifteen  per  cent,  more  for 
American-made  goods  than  was  asked  for  the  same  fabrics 
when  imported.  At  Baltimore  the  enthusiasm  over  manu- 

*  Carthage  Gazette  and  Friend  of  the  People,  September  10,  1808. 
f  The  Athenian  Society. 


502  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

factures  rose  so  high  that  the  fourth  of  July  was  set  apart  as 
the  day  for  a  great  industrial  parade.  It  should,  the  pro- 
moters declared,  surpass  even  those  fine  industrial  exhibitions 
which  in  ~New  York  and  Philadelphia  had  followed  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Federal  Constitution. 

Tradesmen  took  up  the  prevailing  craze  and  filled  whole 
columns  of  the  newspapers  with  advertisements  of  Ameri- 
can patent  shot,  American  oil-cloth  equal  to  the  best  im- 
ported, American  camphor  better  than  the  London  refined, 
American  flax  sheeting,  tow  linen,  yarn,  and  thread,  Ameri- 
can chintz  calicoes,  shawls,  and  pocket-handkerchiefs,  domes- 
tic-made satinets,  muslinets,  and  bed-ticking.  The  triumph 
of  the  Republican  party  was  celebrated  all  over  Pennsylvania 
with  public  dinners.  On  these  occasions  the  revellers  never 
failed  to  toast  the  infant  manufactures.  The  sentiment  of 
one  was  that  they  might  increase  as  rapidly  as  the  national 
debt  of  England.  Another  called  on  American  women  to  put 
away  the  gaudy  trappings  of  European  luxury  for  the  plainer 
costume  of  their  country's  manufactures.  In  a  third  the  hope 
was  expressed  that  the  infant  manufactures,  like  the  infant 
Hercules,  might  strangle  the  serpent  of  British  influence. 

By  this  time  the  State  Legislatures  began  to  assemble,  and 
the  craze  spread  to  them.  The  Pennsylvania  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives passed  a  resolution  declaring  that  it  was  the  duty 
of  every  citizen  to  encourage  the  domestic  manufactures  of  his 
country,  and  that,  as  example  was  more  powerful  than  pre- 
cept, the  members  of  the  House  should  come  to  the  next  ses- 
sion clothed  in  goods  of  American  make.  While  the  resolu- 
tion was  under  debate  an  attempt  was  made  to  turn  it  into 
ridicule,  and  an  amendment  was  offered  defining  the  dress  as 
hunting-shirt,  buckskin  pantaloons,  and  moccasins.  But  the 
House  thought  the  matter  serious  and  the  amendment  was 
rejected.  In  Kentucky,  Henry  Clay  was  the  mover  of  a  simi- 
lar resolution,  which  Humphrey  Marshall  described  as  the  trick 
of  a  demagogue.  For  this  he  was  called  out,  and  a  duel  fought 
in  which  both  he  and  Clay  were  slightly  wounded.  The  reso- 
lution meantime  was  passed.  In  Virginia  the  Legislature 
fixed  the  date  on  which  its  members  should  appear  in  clothes 
of  home  manufacture  as  the  first  day  of  December,  1809. 


1802.  MERINO  SHEEP.  503 

Ohio  chose  the  first  Monday  in  December ;  North  Carolina 
urged  her  representatives  to  come  to  the  next  session  wearing 
clothes  made  within  her  bounds,  and,  that  the  resolution  might 
not  be  overlooked,  she  ordered  it  to  be  printed  on  the  front 
cover  of  each  copy  of  the  session  laws.*  The  Vermont  Assem- 
bly asked  the  Governor  and  Council  to  concur  in  a  resolution 
to  appear  at  the  next  session  wearing  clothes  of  domestic  manu- 
facture. Connecticut  turned  her  attention  to  sheep.  As  early 
as  1802  David  Humphreys,  then  Minister  from  the  United 
States  to  Portugal,  sent  to  his  home  in  Connecticut  one  hun- 
dred selected  Merinos,  and  set  up  mills  for  turning  their 
fleeces  into  cloth.  The  General  Court  of  Connecticut  now 
appointed  a  committee  to  examine  the  experiment  of  Hum- 
phreys and  report  what  they  saw.  The  report  was  so  flatter- 
ing that  the  Legislature  thanked  him  for  his  patriotic  efforts, 
exempted  his  mills  from  taxation  for  ten  years,  and  his  work- 
men and  apprentices  from  poll  taxes,  road  taxes,  and  service 
in  the  militia.  New  Hampshire  promised  to  relieve  from 
taxation  any  cotton  and  woollen  manufacturing  company  whose 
capital  was  not  less  than  four  thousand  nor  more  than  twenty 
thousand  dollars.  Pennsylvania  laid  a  tax  on  dogs  and  com- 
manded the  county  commissioners  to  use  the  money  for  the 
purchase  of  Merino  rams,  keep  them  at  places  convenient  to 
the  people,  and  suffer  any  farmer  to  send  four  ewes.  New 
York  offered  fifty  dollars  to  the  farmer  who  should  be  the  first 
to  bring  a  ram  into  his  county. 

Under  such  encouragement  as  this,  Merinos  began  to  come 
in  rapidly.  The  invasion  of  Spain  by  Napoleon  and  the 
downfall  of  the  Spanish  monarchy  had  been  followed  by  the 
confiscation  of  many  of  the  famous  flocks.  Now  for  the  first 
time  it  became  possible  to  secure,  for  a  reasonable  sum,  fine 
rams  and  ewes  from  the  flocks  of  the  royal  monastery  of 
Guadeloupe  and  from  the  yet  more  celebrated  flocks  of  the 
Prince  of  Peace.  For  a  while  the  chief  occupation  of  the 
American  Consul  at  Lisbon  was  buying  and  shipping  sheep. 
From  the  day  the  embargo  was  lifted  no  ship  came  home  from 

*  A  copy  of  the  session  laws,  bound  in  blue  paper,  with  the  resolution  printed 
as  directed,  is  in  the  Philadelphia  Law  Library. 


504:  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxu. 

Spain  or  Portugal  without  a  few  of  them.  Some  brought 
little  else.  During  1810  the  newspapers  in  all  the  seaport 
towns — Portland,  Salem,  Newburyport,  Boston,  New  London, 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  Norfolk — contained  many  advertise- 
ments of  Spanish  Merinos  for  sale.  The  sales  were  generally 
at  auction,  and  the  prices  paid  for  rams  were  from  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty  to  five  hundred  and  ten  dollars.  Long  disser- 
tations on  the  care  of  Merinos  and  the  value  of  their  fleece 
were  published  in  the  newspapers  and  struggling  magazines. 
Merino  societies  were  formed,  herd  books  were  opened,  and 
the  Arlington  sheep-shearing  became  an  event  in  the  industrial 
world. 

Thus  stimulated  by  every  contrivance  known  to  man,  by 
the  embargo,  by  the  Non-importation  Act,  by  the  orders  in 
council,  by  the  French  decrees,  by  bounties,  by  offers  of  ex- 
emption from  taxation,  by  the  solemn  resolutions  of  legisla- 
tors, and  the  solemn  pledges  of  the  people  to  use  none  but 
American -made  goods  and  wares,  manufactures  began  to 
thrive,  and  mills,  factories,  work-shops,  foundries,  rope-walks 
sprang  up  in  every  quarter  of  the  land  from  Maine  to  Louis- 
iana. From  1809  to  1812  the  statute  books  of  the  States  ex- 
hibit unmistakable  signs  of  the  progress  of  an  industrial  revo- 
lution. Charters  for  manufacturing  companies  began  to  vie 
in  number  with  charters  for  banks,  insurance  companies, 
bridge  companies,  and  turnpike  companies.  The  water-power 
sites  of  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  and  Connecticut  then 
became  the  centre  of  the  woollen  and  cotton  industry.  The 
Berkshire  hills  were  covered  with  sheep.  The  one  county 
of  Pittsfield  claimed  fifteen  hundred  Merinos.  All  over  New 
York,  at  Schaghticoke,  at  Galen,  at  Geneva,  at  Manlius,  at 
Milton,  at  Montezuma,  at  New  Hartford ;  in  Eensselaer 
County,  in  Madison  County,  in  the  counties  of  Clinton, 
Oneida,  Oriskany,  Utica,  Niagara,  Columbia,  Chenango, 
Orange,  "Westchester,  iron-works,  salt-works,  glass-works,  paper- 
mills,  cotton-mills,  thread-works,  factories  for  making  cotton 
and  woollen  cloth,  axes,  scythes,  and  edge  tools  were  erected. 
As  many  as  seventeen  manufactories  were  incorporated  by 
New  York  in  1810  and  fifteen  more  in  1811.  At  Philadel- 
phia were  chemical  works  where  vitriol  was  made,  carpet 


1810.  DEMAND  FOE  PROTECTION.  505 

mills,  oil-cloth  factories,  glass-works,  paper-mills,  type  found- 
ries, and  two  tall  shot  towers  whose  product,  it  was  said, 
would  save  the  country  every  year  the  twenty  thousand  dol- 
lars sent  abroad  to  pay  for  bird-shot.  The  farmers  ef  Ohio 
were  raising  wool.  In  Kentucky  the  planters  were  making  a 
staple  crop  of  hemp.  At  Lexington  were  nine  rope-walks  and 
four  cotton-bagging  mills,  each  using  fifty  tons  of  hemp  and 
giving  employment  to  four  hundred  hands.  Kentucky  made 
hats,  boots,  shoes.  Windsor  chairs  found  their  way  all  over 
to  Ohio,  Tennessee,  and  upper  Louisiana.  The  whole  country 
furnished  a  market  for  her  rope,  twine,  fish-line,  seine-twine, 
cables,  cotton-bagging,  and  sail-cloth. 

The  appearance  of  these  infant  industries  was  not  im- 
mediately followed  by  demands  for  Government  aid.  The 
coppersmiths  and  the  twine-makers  seem  to  have  been  the 
only  men  who  cried  out  for  relief  during  the  existence  of  the 
embargo.  But  when  the  embargo  was  lifted  and  the  procla- 
mation was  issued  announcing  that,  on  the  tenth  day  of  June, 
1809,  trade  would  once  more  be  renewed  with  Great  Britain, 
many  a  manufacturer  thought  himself  on  the  brink  of  ruin. 
The  hemp-growers  of  Kentucky  instantly  petitioned  for  re- 
lief. Allured  by  the  embargo  and  the  Non-importation  Act,* 
they  had,  their  memorial  set  forth,  gone  extensively  into  the 
raising  and  manufacturing  of  hemp.  They  had  looked  on  the 
Non-importation  Act  as  a  measure  intended  not  so  much  to 
bring  England  to  a  sense  of  justice  as  to  turn  capital  from 
commerce  to  manufactures.  That  she  had  been  brought  to  do 
justice  was  as  much  a  subject  of  rejoicing  to  them  as  to  their 
fellow-countrymen.  But  with  the  renewal  of  trade  coarse 
linen  would  come  in,  and  on  the  reappearance  of  English 
linens  their  ruin  would  begin.  Such  was  the  power  of  Eng- 
lish capital,  such  was  the  cheapness  of  English  labor,  such  the 
encouragement  given  by  bounties  to  English  manufacturers, 
that  competition  was  not  to  be  thought  of.  If  these  feeble  in- 
dustries— industries  called  forth  by  the  Non-importation  Act — 
were  to  continue  they  must  be  protected.  To  do  so  was  np 

*  American  State  Papers,  Finance,  vol.  ii,  pp.  367-368.     Annals  of  Congress, 
1809-1810,  pp.  2170-2173. 


506  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

more  than  good  policy  and  common  justice.  Good  policy,  be- 
cause it  would  increase  national  wealth,  keep  money  at  home, 
and  add  to  the  prosperity  of  the  farmer,  the  planter,  and  the 
mechanic.  Common  justice,  because  when  Kentucky  beheld 
the  fishermen  of  the  East  encouraged  with  bounties  and  pro- 
tecting duties,  when  she  saw  the  public  money  spent,  not  in 
the  "West,  but  at  Washington  and  on  the  seaboard,  in  salaries, 
in  buildings,  in  forts,  on  the  army  and  the  navy,  from  all  of 
which  she  derived  no  benefit  at  all,  she  could  not  but  feel  that 
she  was  at  least  entitled  to  the  protection  of  her  staple  industry. 

The  Committee  on  Manufactures  were  deaf  to  this  entreaty. 
The  members  believed  in  protection.  But  no  industry,  in 
their  opinion,  deserved  to  be  protected  unless  it  could  beyond 
doubt  supply  every  demand  of  the  home  market.  The  people 
must  not  be  oppressed  by  monopolies.  That  Kentucky  could 
furnish  all  the  cotton  bagging  and  all  the  coarse  linen  that 
was  needed  by  the  people  of  seventeen  states  and  six  terri- 
tories did  not  seem  possible.  In  the  report,  therefore,  which 
the  committee  made  a  few  weeks  after  the  Kentucky  memo- 
rial was  received  no  mention  was  made  of  coarse  linen  among 
the  articles  recommended  to  be  protected.  * 

But  how  was  the  committee  to  determine  what  should  be 
encouraged  and  what  not  ?  No  statistics  of  any  kind  were  to 
be  had.  What  might  be  the  true  condition  of  the  cotton  and 
woollen  industry,  how  many  men  and  how  much  capital  was 
controlled  by  the  iron  masters,  to  what  extent  the  hat  makers 
could  supply  the  home  market,  nobody  knew.  To  help  the 
Committee  on  Manufactures  in  this  respect  the  House  called 
on  Gallatin  to  report  at  the  next  session  on  the  state  of  manu- 
factures then  existing  in  the  United  States,  f  He  was  to  in- 
form the  House  at  the  same  time  how  such  means  as  were 
within  the  constitutional  powers  of  Congress  could  be  used 
to  foster  and  encourage  manufactures.  Gathering  together 
such  scraps  of  information  as  the  collectors  of  the  ports  could 
give  him,  he  submitted  a  report  in  April,  1810.  That  it  was 

*  These  articles  were  ready-made  clothing  and  millinery,  bed-ticking,  cordu- 
roys and  fustians,  salt,  shot,  cotton  manufactured  beyond  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
and  any  article  of  which  lead  was  the  chief  part. 

f  Journal  House  of  Representatives,  May  31,  June  1  and  7,  1809. 


1810.  REASONS  FOR  PROTECTION.  507 

hasty  and  defective  lie  freely  admitted,  and  he  suggested  that 
the  coming  census  be  made  the  occasion  for  collecting  informa- 
tion both  detailed  and  correct.  Congress  acted  on  the  sugges- 
tion, and,  by  a  special  law,  the  marshals  and  their  deputies  were 
commanded  to  take  an  account  of  the  manufacturing  estab- 
lishments in  their  districts,  and  report  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury.  * 

All  over  the  country,  meanwhile,  the  friends  of  a  protective 
policy  were  striving  to  rouse  the  people.  It  cannot  be  denied, 
they  would  argue,  that  many  articles  of  clothing  and  nearly 
all  necessary  liquors  can  be  made  in  the  United  States  for  less 
than  it  costs  to  import  them.  "Wages  are  indeed  very  high. 
But  the  amazing  improvements  in  all  kinds  of  labor-saving 
machinery  have  already  so  reduced  the  price  of  labor  that, 
when  the  cost  of  exporting  our  raw  material  is  added  to  the 
cost  of  bringing  back  the  manufactured  goods,  it  is  possible 
to  undersell  the  importer  of  English  and  European  fabrics. 
If  this  is  to  be  continued,  our  factories  must  be  permanently 
established,  and  to  establish  them  permanently  the  fostering 
care  of  government  is  necessary ;  for  Great  Britain,  in  order 
to  break  and  destroy  our  manufactures,  will  send  over  great 
quantities  of  her  goods  and  sell  them  for  less  than  it  costs  to 
make  them,  f  Our  manufacturers  are  in  danger  of  being 
overwhelmed  by  the  capitalists  of  Europe.  Let  us,  then,  call 
with  one  voice  on  Congress  for  protection.  Let  the  mechanics 
and  manufacturers  in  every  town  in  the  United  States  bestir 
themselves.  Let  committees  of  correspondence  be  appointed, 
and  let  memorials  to  Congress  be  drawn  up  and  passed  about 
for  signature.  ^  In  Kentucky  such  memorials  were  passed 
about,  and,  by  vote  of  the  Legislature,  *  were  transmitted  to 
Congress. 

Of  all  the  petitions  which  up  to  this  time  had  been  laid 
before  Congress,  none  stated  the  case  of  the  protectionists  so 

*  Act  approved  May  1,  1810.     The  vast  mass  of  facts  then  gathered  were 
.given,  in  1812,  to  Tench  Cox  to  digest  and  classify.     His  report  was  made,  in 
1814,  in  American  State  Papers,  Finance,  vol.  ii,  pp.  666-812. 

f  Baltimore  Evening  Post,  June  17,  1809. 

$  Kentucky  Gazette.     True  American,  October  11,  1810. 

*  January  31,  1811. 


508  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

clearly  and  so  forcibly  as  one  from  the  people  of  Lexington, 
Kentucky.  "  Since  the  opening  of  the  French  Revolution," 
they  said,  "  two  causes  have  produced  a  rapid  accumulation  of 
wealth  in  the  United  States.  One  is  the  unnatural  demand  for 
the  products  of  our  agriculture.  The  other  is  the  unnatural 
expansion  of  our  commerce.  The  ravages  of  war,  by  drawing 
away  men  from  the  pursuits  of  peace,  produced  the  first  cause. 
The  ruin  of  the  merchant  marine  of  Europe  produced  the  sec- 
ond. Upon  their  continuance  it  is  not  safe  to  depend.  "War 
cannot  be  eternal.  Peace  will  return,  and  when  it  does  what 
has  so  long  been  the  soul  of  industry  will  expire,  and  a  new 
means  will  have  to  be  sought  for  preserving  the  wealth  so  rap- 
idly acquired.  "Where,  then,  will  a  market  for  our  produce  be 
found  ?  Asia  and  Africa  want  nothing  from  us.  Europe  will 
take  but  little.  "We  must,  in  fine,  look  at  home,  and  must  get 
ready  for  that  change  in  business  which  will  surely  take  place 
when  peace  in  Europe  shall  put  an  end  to  our  carrying  trade 
and  destroy  the  foreign  markets  for  our  produce. 

"  Nor  can  the  Government  do  better  than  encourage  the 
growth  of  a  home  market.  The  decrees  and  orders  in  coun- 
cil produced  the  embargo.  The  embargo  stopped  commerce, 
on  which  many  laborers  depended  for  a  living,  many  mer- 
chants for  their  profits,  and  many  farmers  for  the  sale  of  their 
crops.  Untold  losses  and  untold  suffering  were  thus  inflicted 
on  thousands  of  men  who,  had  our  raw  material  been  fabri- 
cated and  our  produce  eaten  at  home  instead  of  abroad,  would 
not  have  lost  one  cent,  nor  been  idle  one  day  because  of  the 
decrees  of  Berlin  and  Milan,  or  the  British  orders  in  council. 
But,  to  secure  a  home  market,  manufactures  must  thrive,  and 
to  make  them  thriving,  they  must  be  protected.  The  manu- 
facturer in  the  United  States  contends  with  obstacles  long 
since  removed  in  England.  He  is  poor ;  he  has  shops  and  fac- 
tories to  build ;  he  has  workmen  to  train,  high  wages  to  pay, 
and  none  of  the  bounties  which  enable  his  English  rival  to 
overcome  the  cost  of  freight,  duty,  and  insurance,  and  sell 
goods  in  the  markets  of  America  as  cheaply  as  in  those  of 
England.  Let  it  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  the  manufact- 
urers are  the  only  men  concerned.  The  whole  people  are  con- 
cerned. Should  peace  with  England  be-broken,  should  we  be 


1811.  WAGES.  509 

forced  to  take  up  arms  in  defence  of  our  honor  and  our  rights, 
where  would  we  look  for  clothing  and  blankets  for  the  troops 
and  sailors,  and  cordage  and  sail-cloth  for  the  frigates  and  pri- 
vateers ?  Never  shall  we  be  truly  a  free  people  till  we  are  as 
independent  of  England  commercially  as  we  are  politically." 
Congress  did  nothing,  and  the  war  began  with  the  worst  pre- 
dictions of  the  petitioners  fulfilled. 

It  is  impossible  to  read  the  many  memorials  which,  for 
twenty  years  past,  had  thus  been  coming  to  Congress  without 
noticing  the  general  complaint  of  the  high  price  of  wages. 
To  us,  when  we  consider  the  long  hours  of  labor  and  the  cost 
of  living,  these  wages  seem  extremely  low. 

An  examination  of  such  statistics  of  the  pay  of  unskilled 
laborers  in  the  chief  towns  as  can  now  be  gathered  shows  that 
the  rates  of  wages  were  different  in  each  of  the  three  great  belts 
along  which  population  was  streaming  westward.  The  high- 
est rates  were  paid  in  the  New  England  belt,  which  stretched 
across  the  country  from  Massachusetts  to  Ohio.  The  lowest 
rates  prevailed  in  the  southern  belt,  which  extended  from  the 
Carolinas  to  Louisiana.  In  each  of  these  bands  again  wages 
were  lowest  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  and,  increasing  rapidly 
in  a  western  direction,  were  greatest  in  the  Mississippi  val- 
ley. They  varied  again  with  the  sex  of  the  laborer,  for  men 
were  paid  most  and  women  least.  They  rose  and  fell  with  the 
seasons  of  the  year,  for  there  was  one  rate  for  winter,  when 
the  days  were  short,  and  another  for  summer,  when  the  days 
were  long,  and  a  third  for  harvest  time,  when  work  was  plenty 
and  the  laborers  few.  And  they  varied  with  the  conditions 
of  labor,  being  greatest  when  the  workman  fed  and  lodged 
himself,  and  lowest  when  he  was  fed,  lodged,  and  provided 
with  grog  by  his  employer. 

Thus,  in  the  district  of  Maine,  at  Haverhill,  and  about 
Boston,  laborers  when  fed  were  paid  seven  dollars  per  month 
in  winter  and  ten  in  summer.  Passing  westward,  the  scale 
rose,  and  at  Springfield  men  were  paid  nine  dollars ;  at  Sto- 
nington,  ten  dollars  ;  at  Stockbridge,  twelve ;  at  Catskill,  thir- 
teen ;  at  Hudson,  fourteen  per  month  ;  provided,  in  each  case, 
they  fed  themselves.  In  the  Genesee  country  and  along  the 
Lakes  hiring  by  the 'month  was  not  common,  and  there  the 


510  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

unskilled  workman  was  paid  one  dollar  a  day  for  laboring 
from  sunrise  to  sunset.  Throughout  central  Pennsylvania 
eight  dollars  per  month  of  twenty-six  working  days  was  paid 
to  farm  hands  who  fed  themselves.  Boatmen  on  the  Ohio  re- 
ceived one  dollar  per  day.  In  the  southern  belt  the  negro 
was  the  chief  laborer,  and  when  he  was  hired  out,  as  was  the 
case  in  all  the  towns,  his  owner  was  paid  eighty  dollars  per 
year.  On  the  Mississippi  the  boat  hands  were  fed  and  paid 
one  dollar  per  working  day.  Even  skilled  services  command- 
ed little  pay  in  the  Southwest.  Thus  at  Nashville,  after  a 
long  and  bitter  quarrel  which  resembles  a  cut-rate  war  between 
two  modern  railroad  corporations,  the  doctors  met  and  adopted 
a  schedule  of  prices  which  they  published  in  the  newspapers, 
and  by  which  they  promised  to  abide.  Visits  which  did  not 
take  them  more  than  three  miles  from  home  were  to  cost  the 
patient  one  dollar.  For  each  mile  beyond  this  limit  they 
were  to  receive  a  shilling  more.  The  charge  for  powders 
was  ninepence  per  dose ;  for  anodynes,  a  shilling  and  six- 
pence ;  for  a  blistering  plaster,  three  shillings ;  for  an  ounce  of 
a  tincture  of  bark,  a  shilling  and  sixpence ;  and  for  a  bottle 
to  put  the  tincture  in,  ninepence. 

Between  1800  and  1810  the  spread  of  population,  the  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  farms,  the  rush  of  men  into  the  mer- 
chant marine,  raised  the  pay  of  the  unskilled  laborer  very 
perceptibly.  From  the  estimates  of  the  cost  of  internal  im- 
provements, from  the  pay-rolls  of  turnpike  companies,  from 
town  records,  from  private  diaries,  from  newspaper  advertise- 
ments, it  appears  that  during  this  period  men  who  could  drive 
piles,  or  build  roads,  or  dig  ditches,  or  pave  streets,  or  tend  a 
machine  in  any  of  the  factories,  or  were  engaged  in  trans- 
portation, were  paid  from  a  dollar  to  a  dollar  and  a  third  per 
day.  One  advertisement  for  thirty  men  to  work  on  the  road 
from  Genesee  river  to  Buffalo  offers  twelve  dollars  a  month, 
food,  lodging,  and  whisky  every  day. 

The  wages  of  skilled  workmen,  however,  underwent  no 
such  increase.  A  few  classes  of  artisans  greatly  in  demand,  as 
ship-carpenters,  were  paid  two  dollars  per  day.  But  they  were 
the  exception,  and  such  trades  as  had  labor  organizations  now 
attempted  to  force  up  wages  by  strikes.  Labor  organizations 


1801-1810.  LABOR  SOCIETIES.  511 

at  that  time  were  generally  for  benevolent  purposes  solely,  and 
nothing  is  more  characteristic  of  the  opening  years  of  our 
century  than  the  rapidity  with  which  benevolent  societies  of 
all  sorts  came  into  existence.  New  York  was  especially  rich 
in  them,  and  there,  between  1800  and  1810,  twenty-four  were 
incorporated.  They  were  founded  for  all  manner  of  benevo- 
lent purposes,  and  were  scattered  all  over  the  State,  from  New 
York  city  to  Geneva.  Such  as  were  purely  labor  organiza- 
tions were  in  general  of  two  kinds — mechanical  societies,  made 
up  of  artisans  following  all  sorts  of  trades,  or,  in  the  large 
cities,  societies  composed  of  men  of  one  craft.  Examples  of 
the  first  kind  were  the  Albany  Mechanical  Society,*  the  Cats- 
kill  Mechanical  Society,  f  and  The  General  Society  of  Me- 
chanics and  Tradesmen  of  the  County  of  Kings.:}:  Examples 
of  the  latter  class  were  the  New  York  Masons'  Society,*  whose 
members  were  either  plasterers,  bricklayers,  or  stone-masons ; 
the  New  York  Society  of  Journeymen  Shipwrights,  1  the 
Franklin  Typographical  Society,  and  the  Journeymen  Cord- 
wainers  of  New  York  City.  In  Philadelphia  were  the  Asy- 
lum Company  of  Journeymen  Printers,  the  Typographical 
Society,  the  Society  of  Hatters,  and  Journeymen  Cordwainers. 
In  Baltimore  there  had  long  been  a  Society  of  Journeymen 
Tailors. 

Associations  of  journeymen  of  one  trade  were  almost  in- 
variably for  the  purpose  of  regulating  wages.  When,  there- 
fore, about  1805,  the  pay  of  the  unskilled  laborer  began  to  rise 
and  that  of  the  skilled  laborer  did  not,  a  series  of  strikes  was 
inaugurated.  The  journeymen  tailors  of  Baltimore  had  one  as 
early  as  1795,  and  forced  up  wages  to  seven  shillings  and  six- 
pence per  job,  and  another  in  October,  1805,  when  the  pay 
per  job  was  fixed  at  eight  shillings  and  ninepence,  and  a  sys- 
tem of  "  extras "  introduced,  by  which  what  had  once  been 
four  jobs  was  at  last  made  to  count  as  eight.  Almost  at  the 
same  time  the  journeymen  cord wainers1  struck  in  Philadelphia. 
Their  society  had  been  in  existence  some  thirteen  years,  had 
conducted  many  turn-outs,  had  always  been  successful,  and  had 

*  Incorporated  March  6,  1801.  *  Incorporated  1807. 

f  Incorporated  1807.  |  Incorporated  April  3,  1807. 

J  Incorporated  1805. 


512  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

so  improved  the  rate  of  wages  that,  by  1805,  it  was  possible 
for  an  industrious  journeyman  to  earn  eleven  dollars  and  a 
half  each  week.  But  the  strike  of  that  year  was  stoutly  re- 
sisted, and  the  strikers  brought  to  trial  in  the  Mayor's  Court, 
charged  with  conspiracy  to  raise  their  wages.  Just  at  that 
moment  the  Aurora  was  engaged  in  an  attack  on  the  Eng- 
lish common  law,  which  a  judge  had  declared  to  be  in  force  in 
Pennsylvania,  and,  as  the  indictment  had  been  obtained  under 
the  common  law,  Duane  made  the  cause  of  the  shoemakers  his 
own.  Among  the  blessings  promised  mankind  by  the  Revolu- 
tion was,  he  said,  the  emancipation  of  industry  from  the  fetters 
forged  by  luxury,  laziness,  aristocracy,  and  fraud.  Hitherto 
the  people  had  travelled  the  level  road  to  equal  justice.  No 
monopoly  had  been  tolerated  save  patent  rights.  Of  all  the 
barbarous  principles  of  feudalism  entailed  on  us  by  England, 
none  was  left  but  slavery,  and  even  this  would  be  greatly  re- 
stricted in  1808.  Yet,  would  it  be  believed,  at  the  very  time 
when  the  state  of  the  negro  was  about  to  be  improved  attempts 
were  being  made  to  reduce  the  whites  to  slavery.  Was  there 
anything  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  or  in  the 
Constitution  of  Pennsylvania  which  gave  one  man  a  right  to 
say  to  another  what  should  be  the  price  of  his  labor  ?  There 
was  not.  It  was  by  the  English  common  law  that  such  things 
became  possible.  When  the  trial  was  over  and  the  men  con- 
victed, he  published  a  report  of  the  trial,  and  dedicated  it  to 
Thomas  McKean,  Governor,  and  the  General  Assembly  of 
Pennsylvania.*  The  shoemakers,  after  their  conviction,  opened 
a  boot  and  shoe  warehouse  of  their  own,  and  appealed  to  the 
public  to  save  them  and  their  families  from  "abject  pov- 
erty." f 

Two  years  later  the  journeymen  tailors  struck  for  a  second 
time  in  Baltimore.  Each  side  appealed  to  the  impartial  pub- 
lic. The  journeymen  demanded  ten  shillings  the  job,  or  nine 
dollars  a  week,  which  was  no  more,  they  declared,  than  was 
paid  to  the  common  laborer,  who  had  not  spent  an  hour  learn- 
ing his  business,  while  they  had  spent  seven  years.  The 
master  tailors  replied  that  the  journeymen  were  becoming 

*  Aurora,  May  29,  1806.  f  Aurora,  April  26,  1806. 


1809.  STRIKES.  513 

high-handed.  Not  only  had  they  refused  to  work  at  the  old 
wages,  but  they  had  forced  men  who  were  willing  to  work  to 
stop,  and  had  threatened  to  tar  and  feather  any  lawyer  who 
prosecuted  them.  Few  masters  in  the  city  made  a  thousand 
suits  a  year,  and  none  were  paid  more  than  seven  dollars  for 
making  one.  To  yield  to  the  demand  of  the  journeymen  was, 
therefore,  impossible,  unless  gentlemen  were  willing  to  pay 
more  for  their  clothes.  The  end  was  a  compromise. 

From  Baltimore  discontent  spread  to  New  York,  and  in 
October,  1809,  the  cordwainers  of  that  city  went  out  on  strike. 
The  society  was  well  organized,  had  on  its  rolls  about  one 
hundred  and  eighty-six  members,  and  seems  to  have  been 
careful  to  enforce  its  rules,  some  of  which  were  most  tyranni- 
cal. Every  journeyman  coming  to  the  city  must  join  the  so- 
ciety or  a  strike  against  the  shop  where  he  was  employed 
would  follow.  When  he  did  join  the  shop  he  ceased,  so  far  as 
his  trade  was  concerned,  to  be  a  freeman.  He  could  not  agree 
with  his  employer  as  to  the  wages  for  which  he  would  work. 
He  could  not  remain  in  a  shop  if  the  master  cordwainer  em- 
ployed an  apprentice  who  was  not  a  member  of  the  society,  or 
employed  more  than  two  apprentices  who  were  members  of 
the  society.  If  a  member  broke  any  of  the  rules  a  demand 
was  made  on  his  employer  for  his  discharge,  and,  if  not  com- 
plied with,  a  strike  was  ordered  against  the  shop.  Strikes  of 
this  kind  seem  to  have  been  common.  One  happened  in 
1809.  But  the  firm  sent  their  work  to  other  shops,  the  jour- 
neymen found  it  out,  and  a  general  strike  was  ordered.  The 
masters  followed  the  example  set  in  Philadelphia :  the  strikers 
were  arrested  and  tried  for  conspiracy  to  raise  their  wages.  The 
case  came  on  in  the  Mayor's  Court  in  1809.  De  Witt  Clin- 
ton was  then  Mayor;  his  term  was  nearly  ended,  and,  not 
wishing  to  antagonize  either  party,  he  twice  postponed  decision. 
In  April,  1810,  Jacob  Radcliff  succeeded  him,  and,  not  having 
heard  the  argument  made  before  Clinton,  put  off  the  case  to  a 
special  session  in  July,  1810.  The  journeymen  were  then 
found  guilty,  admonished  by  the  Mayor,  and  fined  one  dollar 
each  with  costs. 

Out  of  the  great  cities  such  labor  movements  could  not 
take  place,  for  skilled  workmen  were  not  numerous.  Even  in 
VOL.  in. — 34 


514  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

the  cities,  save  in  a  few  trades,  the  demand  was  greater  than 
the  supply.  The  contractors  who  built  the  City  Hall  at  New 
York  were  forced  to  advertise  for  stone-cutters  in  the  news- 
papers of  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and  Charleston,  South  Caro- 
lina. Every  known  inducement  was  offered.  "Wages  would  be 
high  and  paid  weekly,  tools  would  be  kept  in  repair,  work  would 
continue  summer  and  winter  for  several  years,  the  situation  was 
most  healthful,  and,  though  the  yellow  fever  raged  in  other 
parts  of  the  city,  no  workman  need  fear.*  It  is  no  uncommon 
thing  to  see,  appearing  for  several  weeks  at  a  time,  such  adver- 
tisements as  "  Wanted,  two  or  three  journeymen  coppersmiths ; 
liberal  wages  will  be  paid  "  ;  f  "  Wanted,  six  or  eight  carpen- 
ters ;  will  be  allowed  for  the  use  of  tools  "  ;  "  Wanted,  four  or 
five  journeymen  bricklayers,"  \  and  in  the  small  towns  on  the 
frontier  persistent  calls  for  journeymen  tailors,  shoemakers, 
blacksmiths,  and  coopers.  In  sparsely  settled  communities 
tailors  and  shoemakers,  dentists  and  doctors  were  generally 
itinerant,  and  would  travel  on  circuits  and  appear  in  certain 
towns,  or  at  certain  taverns  and  cross-road  inns,  at  regular 
intervals.  Throughout  Pennsylvania  no  inconsiderable  part 
of  the  skilled  laborers  was  composed  of  redemptioners.  Ad- 
vertisements offering  them  for  sale  announce  every  kind  of 
handicraftsman,  from  gardeners  and  weavers  up  to  stay-makers 
and  barber  surgeons.  South  of  Pennsylvania  the  laborer  was 
a  slave. 

The  economic  growth  of  twenty  years  had  wrought  a 
great  change  in  the  sentiments  of  the  people  on  the  subject  of 
slavery.  The  feeling  stirred  up  by  the  revolution — the  feel- 
ing that  it  was  grossly  inconsistent  to  declare  that  all  men 
were  by  nature  free  and  entitled  to  the  inalienable  rights  of 
acquiring  and  enjoying  property,  while  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  men  all  over  the  country  were,  by  law,  held  in  slavery, 
dispossessed  of  property,  and  deprived  of  the  power  of  acquir- 
ing any ;  the  feeling  which  had  founded  abolition  societies, 
which  had  forced  Congress  to  shut  slavery  out  of  the  North- 
west Territory,  and  had  led  every  State  north  of  the  Mason 

*  Aurora,  June  24,  1805.     Charleston  Courier,  July  13,  1803. 
f  Baltimore  Federal  Gazette,  May  30-June  30,  1804. 
Democratic  Clarion. 


1793.  SLAVERY.  515 

and  Dixon  line  to  provide  in  some  way  for  the  abolition  of 
her  slaves — this  feeling  had  all  but  died  out.  Save  the  Society 
of  Friends,  the  members  of  the  struggling  abolition  societies, 
whose  delegates  met  each  year,  and  a  few  men  of  humanitarian 
sentiments,  the  cause  of  abolition  had  scarcely  one  advocate. 
For  this  the  Constitution  was  largely  responsible.  The  House 
of  Kepresentatives  in  1793  had  been  called  on  to  abolish  slav- 
ery, had  refused  to  do  so,  and  had  taken  occasion  to  lay  down 
distinctly  what  were  its  constitutional  powers.  The  General 
Government,  the  House  said,  could  not  prevent  the  importa- 
tion of  slaves  before  1808 ;  nor  emancipate  such  slaves  as  were 
in  the  country,  nor  interfere  with  the  internal  affairs  of  the 
States  for  the  purpose  of  securing  better  treatment  of  the 
negroes.  All  Congress  could  do  was,  lay  a  tax  of  ten  dollars 
on  each  slave  imported,  and  forbid  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  and  subjects  of  other  States,  to  fit  out  ships  in  the  ports 
of  the  United  States  for  the  purpose  of  engaging  in  the  Afri- 
can slave  trade.  From  that  moment  the  cause  of  abolition  de- 
clined. The  Northern  States  had  extinguished  or  soon  pro- 
vided for  the  extinction  of  slavery ;  the  Southern  States  would 
not  do  so ;  the  House  of  Representatives  had  declared  it  could 
not  do  so  ;  and  to  agitate  the  question  any  longer  seemed,  to 
the  great  body  of  the  people,  quite  useless. 

No  sooner  did  Congress  thus  define  its  powers  than  it 
was  called  on  to  use  them.  In  1793  the  South  demanded  and 
obtained  the  act  for  the  rendition  of  fugitive  slaves.  In  1794 
the  North  demanded  and  obtained  the  law  for  the  suppression 
of  the  slave  trade.  Thenceforth  no  citizen  of  the  United 
States  and  no  foreigner  was  to  be  suffered  to  use  our  ports 
for  building  or  equipping  ships  for  the  slave  trade  of  foreign 
countries.  As  none  of  the  Southern  States  permitted  negroes 
to  be  imported  from  abroad,  the  people  of  the  United  States 
seemed  to  have  done  all  that  could  be  done  to  stop  the  African 
slave  trade.  But  just  at  this  time  the  effect  of  the  cotton-gin 
began  to  be  felt.  An  immense  impetus  was  given  to  cotton- 
growing.  The  demand  for  slaves  could  not  be  supplied  by 
their  natural  increase,  and  a  horde  of  kidnappers  and  smug- 
glers sprang  up,  who  undertook  to  make  good  the  deficiency. 
Negroes  set  free  by  the  efforts  of  the  Friends,  and  of  the  so- 


516  ECONOMIC   STATE   OF  THE   PEOPLE.       CHAP.  xxir. 

ceities  for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  were  seized,  dragged  South, 
and  sold  into  slavery.  Against  this  outrage  the  Friends  pro- 
tested, and  the  negroes  petitioned  Congress  in  vain.  The 
remedy,  the  House  declared,  lay  with  the  courts,  not  with 
Congress,  and  passed  the  matter  by. 

The  slave  trade  meanwhile  went  on  openly.  Yessels,  whose 
construction  made  clear  the  purpose  for  which  they  were  in- 
tended, were  built  in  our  ports,  loaded  with  manacles,  and 
cleared  for  the  "West  Indies,  where,  taking  on  a  cargo  of  rum, 
they  would  raise  the  Danish  flag  and  sail  for  Africa.  So  bold 
and  defiant  did  the  slavers  become  that  in  1800  Congress  was 
forced  to  amend  the  law  against  the  slave  trade  and  make  it 
more  stringent.  Any  citizen  of  the  United  States  who  had 
any  part  or  parcel  in  a  ship  engaged  in  carrying  slaves  from 
one  foreign  port  to  another  was  liable  to  a  fine  of  twice  the 
value  of  his  interest  in  the  ship  and  twice  the  value  of  his  in- 
terest in  the  slaves.  Yessels  bearing  commissions  from  the 
United  States  were  empowered  to  make  a  prize  of  any  ship 
fond  violating  the  law.* 

The  restrictions  were  concessions  to  the  feelings  of  the 
North,  and  were  followed  in  time  by  a  concession  to  the  fears 
of  the  South.  An  agent  of  freedom  far  more  terrible,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  planters,  than  Quakers  or  Abolitionists,  had 
suddenly  appeared  in  the  midst  of  them.  A  ship-load  of  free 
negroes  from  Guadeloupe  had  landed  at  "Wilmington  in  North 
Carolina.  Others  from  San  Domingo  had  reached  Boston  and 
New  York.  In  North  Carolina  these  men  were  beheld  with 
horror.  They  had  once  been  slaves.  They  had  been  made 
free  by  the  Government  of  France,  had  become  obnoxious, 
and  had  by  force  been  placed  on  board  an  American  ship  and 
carried  to  the  United  States.  Their  minds  were  believed  to 
be  inflamed  with  wild  ideas  of  liberty  by  the  doings  of  Tous- 
saint  L'Ouverture.  All  the  horrors  of  San  Domingo,  the  up- 
rising, the  massacre,  seemed  likely  to  be  repeated  on  American 
soil.  Against  such  dangers  the  House  was  entreated  to  protect 
the  country,!  and  soon  had  under  discussion  a  bill  forbidding 

*  Act  of  May  10,  1800. 

f  Memorial  from  sundry  inhabitants  of  Wilmington,  January  17,  1803. 


1803.  IMPORTATION  OF  SLAVES.  517 

any  negro,  mulatto,  or  person  of  color  to  enter  a  port  of  any 
State  from  which  he  was  by  the  law  of  that  State  excluded. 
It  was  represented  in  the  course  of  debate  that  this  was  a  dis- 
crimination against  citizens  of  the  United  States.  In  the 
North  some  citizens  were  black  and  some  were  white.  Such 
as  were  black  could  not,  should  the  bill  pass,  go  to  sea  for 
commercial  purposes,  nor  cruise  along  the  shore,  nor  even  in 
distress  put  into  a  port  without  being  seized  and  punished. 
This  was  a  violation  of  the  constitutional  provision  that  "  The 
citizens  of  each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  and 
immunities  of  citizens  in  the  several  States."  In  precisely  the 
same  way  the  law  would  discriminate  between  the  white  citi- 
zens and  the  black  citizens  of  a  State.  The  one  would  be  at 
liberty  to  roam  at  will,  the  other  would  not  be  safe  across  the 
border.  The  justice  of  these  objections  was  plain.  The  bill 
was  therefore  recommitted,  and  when,  some  weeks  after,  it 
passed  Congress,  negroes,  mulattoes,  and  persons  of  color  who 
were  citizens,  natives,  or  registered  seamen  of  the  United 
States,  or  seamen  of  countries  beyond  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
were  expressly  exempted.  The  law  applied,  in  short,  to  the 
French  West  Indies  and  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  commanded 
collectors  and  officers  of  the  customs  to  be  vigilant  in  carrying 
out  the  laws  of  the  several  States  prohibiting  the  importation 
of  negroes.* 

Of  all  laws,  these  were  the  most  difficult  to  execute.  The 
extent  and  physical  features  of  the  Southern  coast,  the  apathy 
of  the  people,  and  the  profits  of  the  trade,  produced  a  race  of 
smugglers  who  gave  no  heed  to  the  collectors  or  the  statutes. 

Negroes  direct  from  Africa — unable  to  utter  a  word  of 
English — were  to  be  seen  everywhere.  South  Carolina  found 
it  impossible  to  enforce  her  law,  and  in  1803  repealed  it.  The 
purchase  of  Louisiana  followed,  and  the  two  events  produced, 
in  1804,  such  a  revival  of  the  antislavery  feeling  as  the  country 
had  not  witnessed  for  twenty  years.  North  Carolina,  horrified 
at  the  rush  of  slavers  into  the  port  of  Charleston,  cried  out  for 
an  amendment  to  the  Federal  Constitution  and  sent  to  the  State 
Legislatures  a  resolution  proposing  one  giving  Congress  power 

*  Act  approved  February  28,  1803. 


518  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxir. 

to  prohibit  the  importation  of  slaves  from  Africa,  from  the  West 
Indies,  from  any  part  of  the  world.*  Massachusetts  heartily 
approved,!  bade  her  senators  and  representatives  move  such  an 
amendment  as  North  Carolina  proposed,  ^  and  sent  to  each 
State  another  designed  to  limit  representation  in  future  to 
freemen.*  When  the  delegates  to  the  American  convention 
for  promoting  the  abolition  of  slavery  met  at  Philadelphia, 
they  too  expressed  alarm  at  the  consequences  of  the  purchase 
of  Louisiana,  and  petitioned  Congress  to  exclude  slavery  from 
the  territory  west  of  the  Mississippi,  just  as  a  previous  Con- 
gress had  shut  it  out  from  the  territory  northwest  of  the  Ohio. 
The  action  of  South  Carolina  had  already  called  forth  a  mo- 
tion in  the  House  of  Representatives  to  lay  the  constitutional 
tax  of  ten  dollars  on  each  slave  brought  into  the  United  States 
or  its  territories.  One  of  the  representatives  from  South 
Carolina  was  Thomas  Lowndes,  who  now  undertook  to  defend 
her.  She  had,  he  said,  in  common  with  her  sisters,  prohibited 
the  importation  of  negroes.  But  her  river  system  afforded 
navigation  to  the  very  heart  of  the  State.  Brethren  from  the 
Eastern  States  were  very  eager  to  take  advantage  of  this. 
The  officers  of  the  customs  were  not  amenable  to  her,  and  the 
law  was  defied.  The  number  of  negroes  introduced  each  year 
was  as  great  as  if  the  trade  had  been  legal,  and  the  State,  to 
remove  from  before  the  eyes  of  the  people  a  spectacle  of  a  law 
openly  defied,  most  wisely  repealed  it.  Under  such  circum- 
stances the  tax  would  do  no  good.  It  would  not  prevent  the 
importation  of  one  slave.  A  revenue  would  flow  into  the  Fed- 
eral Treasury,  and  this  revenue  would  be  gathered  exclusively 
in  South  Carolina.  "Was  it  just  to  lay  such  a  tax  on  her  agricult- 
ure ?  "Were  the  tax  needed  to  replenish  a  wasting  Treasury, 
the  need  might  be  an  excuse  for  imposing  it.  But  money 
was  not  wanted.  The  annual  revenue  was  quite  enough  and 
more  than  enough  to  meet  the  annual  expenses.  A  tax  on 
slaves  brought  from  abroad  must  then  be  regarded  as  a  cen- 

*  Passed  the  Senate  of  North  Carolina,  November  29,  1804,  and  the  House, 
December  14,  1804. 

f  Approved  by  Massachusetts,  February  12,  1805. 
J  Moved  in  House  of  Representatives,  March  3,  1805. 

*  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States  voL  iii,  pp.  44-47. 


1804.  .IMPORTATION  OF  SLAVES.  519 

sure  on  South  Carolina,  as  an  attempt  to  coerce  her.  She 
was  a  sovereign  State,  and  under  the  Constitution  had  a  right 
to  import  all  the  negroes  she  wanted. 

This  was  admitted,  and  it  was  said  in  reply  that  the  United 
States  had  a  constitutional  right  to  tax  slaves  imported ;  that 
slaves  were  selling  at  four  hundred  dollars  a  head ;  and  that  a 
tax  of  ten  dollars  on  articles  worth  four  hundred  was  not  very 
burdensome.  The  duty,  moreover,  was  uniform.  No  State 
was  exempt.  If  one  paid  nothing  and  another  much,  that 
was  the  affair  of  the  State  and  not  the  fault  of  the  tax.  The 
question  was  simply  one  of  expediency,  and  the  expedience 
was  shown  by  three  considerations.  In  the  first  place,  the  tax  \ 
could  easily  be  borne ;  not  one  slave  would  be  kept  out  of  the 
country  because  of  the  duty.  In  the  second  place,  bring-  J 
ing  in  slaves  was  harmful  to  the  poor  white  laborers.  It  de-~~ 
prived  them  of  work  and  increased  the  severity  of  their  lot. 
In  the  third  place,  the  money  raised  would  be  most  acceptable, 
for  it  could  be  wisely  used  to  make  roads,  to  erect  public  x 
buildings,  to  pay  some  of  the  many  just  claims  on  the  Govern-  ) 
ment  which  had  been  disallowed  by  the  statute  of  limitations.  / 
To  this  it  was  answered  that  if  the  tax  were  laid  the  Govern- 
ment would  be  deriving  revenue  from  the  slave  trade  and 
would  be  in  duty  bound  to  protect  and  defend  it,  for  taxation 
and  protection  went  together.  How  would  the  opponents  of  the 
traffic  in  human  beings  like  that  ?  Their  answer  was  to  order 
a  bill  laying  the  tax  to  be  reported.  Another  long  debate  fol- 
lowed, in  the  course  of  which  it  was  urged  that,  if  action  were 
postponed,  the  Legislature  of  South  Carolina,  seeing  how  odi- 
ous her  law  was  in  the  eyes  of  the  people,  would  repeal  it. 
The  argument  prevailed,  for  the  presidential  campaign  was  at 
hand,  and  the  bill  was  not  acted  on.  A  year  later  the  matter 
was  again  before  the  House  for  a  few  moments ;  but  another 
year  passed  before  it  was  seriously  considered.  Then  it 
seemed  as  if  something  would  really  be  done.  The  resolution  ) 
to  tax  was  debated  and  agreed  to.  A  bill  was  ordered,  re- 
ported, read  twice,  committed,  debated,  read  a  third  time,  and 
sent  to  a  select  committee ;  but  the  new  bill  which  was  re- 
ported received  no  consideration.  At  the  opening  of  the  next 
session  Jefferson  made  mention  of  the  matter  in  his  message. 


520  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xm. 

He  congratulated  Congress  that  the  day  was  near  when  it  could 
by  law  stop  the  importation  of  slaves,  and  urged  the  passage  of 
such  a  law  without  delay.  In  a  few  days  bills  for  this  purpose 
were  before  both  House  and  Senate.  The  House  bill  prescribed 
heavy  fines  and  forfeitures  for  any  one  who,  after  the  thirty- 
first  of  December,  1807,  brought  a  slave  into  the  United  States 
or  its  territories.  As  it  then  read,  a  negro  imported  in  viola- 
tion of  the  law  would  be  forfeited  and  be  treated  in  accord- 
ance with  the  provisions  of  an  act  to  regulate  the  collection  of 
duties.  They  were,  in  other  words,  to  be  seized  by  the  revenue 
officers  as  goods,  wares,  and  merchandise  imported  contrary  to 
law.  They  were  then  to  be  libelled  in  the  Federal  courts,  con- 
demned, sold  at  the  public  auction  block,  and  one  half  the 
money  received  was  to  be  paid  into  the  Federal  Treasury. 
This  would  have  made  them  slaves.  An  amendment  was 
therefore  offered  providing  for  the  freedom  of  such  persons — 
and  disagreed  to.  The  whole  authority  of  the  Government, 
said  one  member,  could  not  enforce  such  a  law ;  the  people 
would  rise  up  against  it.  Did  gentlemen  suppose  that  the  in- 
habitants of  the  slave  States  would  suffer  free  negroes  to  live 
among  them  ?  No  !  They  would,  gentlemen  would  under- 
stand him,  "  get  rid  of  them  in  some  way."  "  "We  must," 
said  he,  "  either  get  rid  of  them  or  they  of  us.  There  is  no 
alternative,  and  I  leave  gentlemen  to  determine  which  course 
would  be  pursued.  There  can  be  no  doubt  on  this  head ;  I 
will  speak  out.  It  is  not  my  practice  to  be  mealy-mouthed 
on  a  subject  of  importance.  Kot  one  of  them  would  be  alive 
in  a  year."  *  The  next  proposition  was  to  strike  out  the  pro- 
vision that  the  negroes  should  be  forfeited.  What  should  be 
done  with  them  would  then  be  left  to  be  determined  by  the 
laws  of  the  States.  But  this  seemed  as  bad  as  the  first,  and 
the  House,  unable  to  determine  what  to  do,  sent  the  bill  to  a 
select  committee.  "When  it  came  back  amended  and  debate 
was  renewed,  attempts  were  again  made  to  provide  for  the 
freedom  of  the  negroes;  to  provide  for  their  freedom  if 
brought  into  a  free  State  and  for  their  transportation  back  to 
Africa  if  brought  into  a  slave  State;  to  provide  for  their 

*  Speech  of  Peter  Early,  of  Georgia.     Annals  of  Congress,  1806-1807,  p.  174. 


1789.         SLAVES  IN  THE  NORTHWEST  TERRITORY.  521 

transportation  to  a  free  State ;  and  to  provide  that  no  person 
should  be  sold  as  a  slave  by  virtue  of  the  act.  This  was  lost 
by  the  casting  vote  of  the  Speaker. 

What  to  do.  with  the  negroes  the  House  did  not  know, 
and  in  their  uncertainty  gladly  abandoned  their  own  bill  and 
took  up,  amended,  and  passed  one  which  came  in  from  the 
Senate.  A  conference  followed  on  the  amendments ;  but  an 
agreement  was  reached  and  the  bill  passed  by  both  Houses. 
The  act  took  effect  on  the  first  day  of  January,  1808,  and  de-  \ 
clared  that  any  negro,  mulatto,  or  person  of  color  imported  in 
order  to  be  held,  sold,  or  disposed  of  as  a  slave,  should  be  subject 
to  such  regulations  as  the  States  and  Territories  saw  fit  to  impose. 

There  were  two  Territories  and  one  State  where  the  Legis- 
latures had  no  choice  of  regulations ;  for,  in  what  had  once 
been  the  territory  northwest  of  the  river  Ohio,  slavery  was 
forbidden  by  the  ordinance  of  1Y87.  It  must  not  be  supposed, 
however,  that  there  were  no  slaves  in  the  Korthwest  Terri- 
tory. At  Cahokia,  at  Kaskaskia,  at  Yincennes,  at  the  French 
settlements  on  the  "Wabash  and  on  the  Illinois,  at  Detroit, 
both  Indian  and  negro  slavery  had  existed  long  before  the 
country  came  into  the  possession  of  the  United  States.  For 
these  unfortunate  people  the  ordinance  did  nothing.  It  was 
concerned  with  the  future,  not  with  the  past.  It  set  no  one 
free  ;  it  merely  declared  that  in  time  to  come  no  one  within 
its  operation  should  be  made  a  slave. 

That  such  was  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  the  ordi- 
nance is  made  certain  by  its  own  language ;  by  the  meaning 
given  to  it  by  its  f  ramers ;  by  the  construction  placed  on  it 
by  those  who  lived  under  it ;  and  by  a  long  series  of  judicial 
decisions  covering  a  period  of  seventy  years. 

Had  slavery  been  abolished,  the  provisions  that  none  but 
"  free  male  inhabitants  "  should  be  represented,  and  none  but 
"  free  male  inhabitants  "  should  vote,  would  have  been  mean- 
ingless. The  French  slave-owners  on  the  Illinois  and  the 
"Wabash,  to  whom  the  ordinance  was  an  incomprehensible 
law,  did,  indeed,  grow  anxious  for  the  safety  of  their  property, 
and  their  anxiety  was  fully  made  known  to  Congress  in  1789 
by  Bartholomew  Tardiveau.  The  time  for  such  a  representa- 
tion seemed  to  him  favorable.  The  Constitution  had  just 


522  ECONOMIC   STATE   OF  THE   PEOPLE.       CHAP.  xxn. 

gone  into  force.  Many  of  the  ordinances  of  the  old  Congress 
were  to  be  re-enacted  and  amended.  Among  them  was  that  of 
1Y87,  for  the  manner  of  appointing  the  Governor,  the  Secre- 
tary, and  the  Judges  under  the  Articles  of  Confederation  could 
not  be  continued  under  the  Constitution.  Tardiveau,  who 
knew  the  settlers  well,  seized  this  opportunity  to  urge  on 
Congress  another  amendment,  explicitly  declaring  that  such 
as  were  slaves  when  the  ordinance  passed  were  not  thereby  set 
free.  He  was  assured  that  the  thing  should  be  done,  and  was 
told  that  there  would  not  be  the  slightest  difficulty  in  doing  it, 
as  the  purpose  of  the  ordinance  was  not  to  abolish  slavery,  but 
to  prevent  the  introduction  of  more  slaves.  The  promise  was 
not  kept,  and  Tardiveau  entreated  St.  Clair  to  ask  for  the 
amendment,  only  to  draw  from  him  in  reply  a  positive  state- 
ment that  the  slaves  were  not  set  free.*  But  this  comforting 
assurance  of  the  Governor  was  soon  destroyed  by  the  action 
of  a  territorial  judge.  Turner  had  gone  to  Yincennes  to  hold 
court,  had  there  quarrelled  with  the  justice  of  the  peace,  and 
is  believed  to  have  incited  two  slaves  belonging  to  the  justice 
to  apply  for  emancipation  under  the  ordinance.  That  Turner 
would  have  set  them  free  is  certain ;  but  the  negroes  were  car- 
ried off  and  no  decision  was  rendered,  f  The  judge  in  a  rage 
then  ordered  the  kidnappers  arrested,  and  the  whole  communi- 
ty was  thrown  into  violent  commotion.  The  Grand  Jury  of 
Knox  County  found  a  presentment  against  Judge  Turner,:}: 
and  the  people  sent  charges  to  Congress  as  grounds  for  his 
impeachment ;  *  the  Governor  censured  him,  |  and  a  petition 
was  soon  before  Congress  praying  for  the  suspension  of  the 
prohibition  on  slavery .A 

The  petitioners  were  but  four  in  number.  Yet  it  can  not  be 
doubted  that  the  arguments  they  used  and  the  reasons  they 
stated  fairly  represented  the  sentiments  of  the  people  of  the 
Illinois  country.  They  complained  of  the  ordinance  as  a 
whole  because  it  was  an  ex-parte  contract  made  by  the  States 

*  St.  Clair  Papers,  vol.  ii,  pp.  117-119. 

f  Indiana,  A  Redemption  from  Slavery,  J.  P.  Dunn,  Jr.,  pp.  223-224. 
j  St.  Clair  Papers,  vol.  ii,  p.  342. 

*  American  State  Papers,  Miscellaneous,  vol.  i,  p.  161. 

j  St.  Clair  Papers,  vol.  ii,  p.  331.  A  Dated  January  12,  1V96. 


1796.  STRUGGLE  JOB  SLAVEEY  IN  ILLINOIS.  523 

only,  and  not  by  the  States  and  the  people  of  the  Territory,  who 
would  never  have  consented  to  be  deprived  of  the  benefits  of 
slavery.  They  complained  of  the  sixth  article  of  the  ordi- 
nance in  particular,  as  contrary  to  the  promises  made  them  by 
Virginia,  as  contrary  to  natural  justice  in  that  it  dissolved 
vested  rights,  and  as  contrary  to  the  interests  and  very  exist- 
ence of  the  community.  If  the  article  abolished  slavery,  and 
some  thought  it  did,  it  was  retroactive  and  deprived  them  of 
vested  rights  in  slaves  owned  before  the  ordinance  was  passed. 
If  it  did  not  do  this,  but  merely  set  free  such  slave  issue  as 
was  born  after  the  ordinance  went  into  effect,  it  still  deprived 
the  masters  of  vested  rights.  For  surely  the  owners  of  slave 
parents  had  as  fixed  a  right  in  the  issue  as  in  the  slaves  them- 
selves. The  article  was  ruinous  to  the  welfare  of  the  people 
because  it  shut  out  laborers  and  made  wages  high.  Unskilled 
workmen,  men  who  ploughed  and  sowed,  reaped  and  dug 
ditches,  commanded  one  dollar  per  day  and  their  keep,  which 
included  food,  lodging,  and  washing.  Nor  could  many  be 
had  at  that  price.  Journeymen  in  any  kind  of  trade  could 
easily  secure  two  dollars  per  day. 

These  reasons,  the  petitioners  felt,  justified  them  in  asking 
for  a  repeal  of  the  antislavery  article,  and  for  leave  to  import 
slaves  from  the  Uuited  States  and  from  nowhere  else.  If  Con- 
gress would  not  do  this,  they  entreated  that  it  would  at  least 
declare  that,  though  slaves  when  they  came  into  the  Territory 
were  made  free,  they  were  nevertheless  bound  to  serve  their 
former  masters  for  life.  Children  of  such  life  apprentices 
would,  of  course,  be  free.  But  it  seemed  only  fair  that  those 
who  had  borne  the  cost  of  bringing  them  up  should  have  the 
benefit  of  their  services  for  a  time,  and  this  time  Congress 
was  asked  to  fix.  At  the  foot  of  the  paper  was  the  statement 
that  the  four  petitioners  signed  for  and  on  behalf  of  the  peo- 
ple of  the  counties  of  Randolph  and  St.  Clair.  Just  how  they 
obtained  this  authority  the  committee  to  whom  the  petition 
was  sent  did  not  know.  It  did  know  that  the  admission  of . 
slavery  would  greatly  displease  the  people  in  the  eastern  part 
of  the  Territory,  and  advised  Congress  not  to  grant  the  prayer.* 

*  American  State  Papers.     Public  Lands,  vol.  i,  pp.  60,  61. 


524:  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.       CIIAP.  xxn. 

But  the  refusal  of  Congress  by  no  means  ended  the  matter. 
Some  soldiers  of  the  Virginia  Line  of  the  Continental  Army 
were  desirous  of  locating  their  bounty  lands  on  the  Yirginia 
Military  Reservation.  They  were  slave-owners,  and,  not  wish- 
ing to  dispose  of  their  negroes,  petitioned  the  Legislature 
for  leave  to  bring  them  into  the  Territory.  To  their  amaze- 
ment the  Assembly  unanimously  resolved  that  the  prayer  was 
incompatible  with  the  ordinance  and  could  not  be  granted.* 
Thinking  that,  perhaps,  too  much  had  been  asked,  the  soldiers 
two  months  later  made  a  milder  request.  This  time  they 
begged  for  leave  to  bring  in  the  slaves  under  certain  condi- 
tions ;  so  far  as  is  known,  they  were  not  answered.f 

Shortly  after  this  the  Territory  of  Indiana  was  cut  off  and 
the  struggle  for  slavery  began  anew.  Now  that  the  people  of 
Ohio  could  have  no  voice  in  the  affairs  of  the  Territory,  the 
prospect  of  success  seemed  more  hopeful,  and  before  Harri- 
son had  organized  his  government  the  settlers  in  the  Illinois 
country  had  a  petition  before  the  Senate.  They  asked  that 
they  might  be  suffered  to  bring  in  slaves  from  the  United 
States ;  that  those  brought  in  should  serve  for  life ;  and  that 
the  children  of  slaves,  when  born  in  the  Territory,  should  not 
be  free  till  the  males  had  reached  the  age  of  thirty-one  and 
the  females  the  age  of  twenty-eight.  $  As  might  have  been 
expected,  the  Senate  laid  the  petition  on  the  table.  The  peo- 
ple then  resorted  to  a  convention,  for  an  idea  was  current 
that  a  memorial  from  such  a  body  would  carry  far  more 
weight  than  a  petition  drawn  up  and  signed  by  any  number 
of  individuals.  Harrison  was  therefore  beset  with  appeals  to 
call  a  convention,  yielded,  and  in  December,  1802,  delegates 
from  each  county  met  at  Yincennes.  The  memorial  there 
prepared  asked  for  many  things:  for  the  extension  of  the 
suffrage  by  doing  away  with  the  qualification  of  a  freehold 
of  fifty  acres ;  for  the  extinction  of  the  Indian  titles  to  the 
southern  part  of  the  Territory ;  for  land  grants  for  schools, 
and  pre-emption  rights  for  actual  settlers ;  but  its  burden  re- 

*  St.  Clair  Papers,  vol.  ii,  p.  447,  note. 
f  St.  Clair  Papers,  vol.  ii,  p.  451,  note. 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  1800-1801,  p.  735.     Indiana,  etc.    By  J.  P.  Dunn,  Jr., 
pp.  297-299. 


1803.  SLAVERY  IN  INDIANA.  525 

lated  to  slavery.  The  convention  was  sure  that  the  prohibi- 
tion of  slavery  had  greatly  retarded  the  population  of  the 
Territory.  Hundreds  of  estimable  slave-owners,  who  were 
ready  and  willing  to  settle  north  of  the  Ohio,  had  been  forced, 
in  consequence,  to  cross  the  Mississippi  into  Spanish  territory. 
To  stop  this  was  most  desirable,  and  it  could  be  stopped  if 
Congress  would  suspend  the  article  for  ten  years  and  consign 
the  negroes  brought  in  during  this  time,  and  their  progeny, 
to  perpetual  servitude.  John  Randolph  was  chairman  of  the 
committee  to  which  the  memorial  was  referred,  and  the  an- 
swer which  he  wrote  did  honor  to  his  head  and  heart. 

The  rapid  growth  of  population  in  Ohio  completely  re- 
futed, the  report  said,  the  statement  that  slave  labor  was 
needed  to  build  up  colonies  north  of  the  Ohio ;  as  to  the  pro- 
vision complained  of,  it  was  wisely  calculated  to  promote  the 
prosperity  and  happiness  of  the  people  of  the  JSTorthwest. 
They  might  now  think  the  restraint  oppressive.  But  the  day 
would  come  when  they  would  find  in  it  ample  compensation 
for  a  temporary  privation  of  laborers  and  population.* 

Doctrine  of  this  sort  did  not  suit  either  the  petitioners  or 
their  friends  in  the  House,  and  the  report  and  memorial  were 
recommitted.f  The  three  men  then  chosen  came  from  Dela- 
ware, Kentucky,  and  Tennessee,  and  soon  advised  the  House 
to  suspend  the  antislavery  article,  allow  slaves  to  be  taken 
into  the  Territory  for  ten  years,  but  free  the  male  children  of 
such  slaves  at  twenty-five  and  the  female  children  at  twenty- 
one.  Again  nothing  was  done.  Meanwhile  the  judges  and 
the  Governor  of  the  Territory  acted  on  their  own  responsibil- 
ity and  adopted  from  Yirginia  a  "  Law  concerning  Servants."  ^ 
It  related  not  only  to  whites  but  to  "  negroes,  mulattoes,  and 
other  persons  not  citizens  of  the  United  States,"  which  was 
interpreted  to  mean  Indians.  Any  such  person  coming  into 
the  Territory  under  contract  to  serve  another  was  to  be  forced 
to  make  that  contract  good.  If  a  white  man,  he  could  not, 
however,  be  sold  to  a  negro  or  an  Indian,  nor  be  sold  or  as- 
signed unless  he  consented.  Henceforth  emigrants  owning  a 

*  American  State  Papers,  Public  Lands,  vol.  i,  p.  146. 

f  Annals  of  Congress,  1803-J804,  p.  779. 

\  Laws  of  Indiana  Territory,  September  22,  1803. 


526  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxii. 

slave  had  but  to  free  him,  make  a  contract  of  service  for  life, 
and  enter  Indiana  without  fear  of  molestation. 

To  the  people  of  the  Illinois  region  the  act  concerning  serv- 
ants, however,  was  far  from  satisfactory.  But  they  thought 
they  saw  a  way  of  escape.  Louisiana  had  just  been  purchased. 
The  treaty  had  just  been  approved  by  the  Senate,  and  a  vast 
area  where  slavery  already  existed  had  been  added  to  the 
United  States.  Could  they  be  joined  to  Louisiana  they  would 
once  more  be  in  a  land  of  slavery,  and  their  dearest  wishes 
would  be  attained.  With  a  promptness  which  showed  their 
eagerness,  they  at  once  petitioned  Congress  to  be  set  off  from 
Indiana  and  attached  to  Louisiana.  Congress  did  not  consent, 
and  the  contest  went  back  to  the  Territory.  The  proslavery 
men  seem  now  to  have  been  seriously  alarmed.  They  were 
then  in  the  majority.  But  antislavery  men  were  coming  in, 
and  the  day  was  near  when  they  would  surely  be  in  the  mi- 
nority. Whatever  they  did  must  be  done  at  once,  and  must 
be  done  through  a  territorial  legislature.  The  Governor  and 
the  judges  could  give  little  help.  They  had  no  power  to 
enact  laws,  but  merely  to  adopt  laws,  or  parts  of  laws,  already 
on  the  statute-books  of  the  States.  As  the  ordinance  forbade 
the  introduction  of  slavery,  they  could  not  adopt  the  slave 
code  of  any  State,  and,  in  adopting  the  indenture  laws,  had 
gone  quite  as  far  as  they  could.  Congress,  it  was  clear,  would 
give  no  help,  for  three  times  their  petitions  had  been  refused. 
All  hope,  therefore,  centred  in  a  territorial  legislature,  with 
power  to  make  laws,  and  a  territorial  delegate  to  explain  the 
needs  of  the  people  to  Congress.  Agitation  for  this  was  ac- 
cordingly begun,  was  successful,  and  in  December,  1804,  Indi- 
ana became  a  Territory  of  the  second  grade. 

And  now  the  wishes  of  the  proslavery  men  were  speedily 
gratified,  and  at  its  very  first  session  the  Assembly  passed 
"  an  act  concerning  the  introduction  of  negroes  and  mulattoes 
into  this  Territory."  Under  it  anybody  owning  a  negro  boy 
or  wench  not  fifteen  years  old,  and  wishing  to  live  in  Indiana, 
had  but  to  enter  the  name  and  age  of  the  negro  on  the  records 
of  a  court  of  common  pleas.  He  could  then  hold  the  boy 
till  he  was  thirty-five  or  the  girl  till  she  was  thirty-two.  To 
hold  a  negro  over  fifteen  the  owner  must,  within  thirty  days 


1806.  SLAVERY  IN  INDIANA.  527 

after  entering  the  Territory,  go  before  the  clerk  of  a  court  of 
common  pleas  and  agree  with  the  negro  as  to  the  number  of 
years  of  service.  Should  no  agreement  be  reached,  the  slave 
must,  within  sixty  days,  be  taken  from  the  Territory.  * 

The  promulgation  of  this  law  threw  the  Northwest  into 
commotion.  A  Cincinnati  newspaper  published  a  part  of  it 
surrounded  with  inverted  column-rules.  "  Eumenes,"  "  Corpus 
Callosum,"  and  "  Benevolensus "  hotly  discussed  it  in  the 
press.  The  National  Intelligencer  cried  out  that  the  ordinance 
had  been  violated  and  the  Union  threatened ;  that  other  Terri- 
tories would  be  tempted  to  do  the  same  ;  that  the  slave  trade 
would  be  stimulated ;  that  the  Governor  and  Council  ought  to 
be  removed  ;  and  that  Indiana  ought  never  to  be  admitted  as 
a  State  till  the  wicked  act  had  been  taken  from  her  statute- 
book. 

The  people  took  up  the  discussion,  brought  it  into  politics, 
and  beseiged  the  Assembly  with  petitions  for  and  against  the 
admission  of  slaves,  and  drew  from  it  a  long  report  against  the 
suspension  of  the  antislavery  article  of  the  ordinance,  against  the 
importation  of  slaves,  and  in  favor  of  the  repeal  of  ~the  in- 
denture law.  But  it  was  not  till  Illinois  had  been  cut  off  and 
Indiana  left  to  herself  that  the  antislavery  party  triumphed  and 
the  laws  for  the  indenture  of  negroes  were  repealed.  This  was 
in  1810.  By  that  time  much  harm  had  been  done.  Numbers 
of  negroes  had  been  indentured  for  terms  far  exceeding  three- 
score years  and  ten,  and  were  held  in  slavery  long  after  Indiana 
became  a  State.  For  the  courts,  while  they  declared  the  in- 
denture law  to  have  been  null  and  void,  held  that,  by  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  State,  the  negroes  must  perform  the  service 
called  for  in  the  indentures  f 

In  Michigan  the  struggle  for  slavery  was  quickly  ended. 
Hardly  had  the  Territory  been  organized  when  two  negro 
slaves  summoned  their  owner  by  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  to 
answer  for  their  detention.  The  negroes  held  that  they  were 
free  by  the  ordinance  of  1787.  The  owner  held  that  they 

*  Laws  of  Indiana  Territory,  first  session,  first  Assembly. 

f  Th.e  history  of  this  antislavery  struggle  in  Indiana  is  told  most  interestingly 
and  with  great  fulness  of  detail  in  Indiana,  a  Redemption  from  Slavery,  by  J.  P. 
Dunn,  Jr. 


528  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

were  slaves  because  they  had  been  such  when  the  British  gave 
up  the  frontier  posts  in  1796,  and  because  as  such  they  were 
guaranteed  to  her  by  Jay's  treaty.  In  this  position  the  Court 
sustained  her.  The  ordinance,  the  judge  decided,  did  not 
emancipate  slaves,  but  forbade  their  importation.  Every  man 
who  was  held  in  servitude  on  the  thirteenth  of  July,  1787, 
when  the  ordinance  became  law,  was  still  in  that  condition. 
Every  man  who  since  that  day  had  entered  the  Northwest 
Territory  was  free,  provided  he  came  into  that  part  where  the 
ordinance  was  in  force.  In  Michigan  it  was  not  in  force  till 
June  sixteenth,  1796,  when  the  British  flag  was  lowered  and 
the  frontier  posts  given  up.  Under  this  ruling  no  slave  of  a 
British  subject  living  in  Michigan  at  that  time,  though  brought 
in  after  1787,  could  claim  the  benefit  of  the  ordinance. 

In  the  Illinois  country  the  struggle  for  slavery  did  not  end 
with  the  separation  from  Indiana  in  1809.  The  laws  in  force 
when  the  two  Territories  were  one  continued  to  be  in  force  in 
Illinois  long  after  it  had  been  cut  off,  and  among  these  were 
the  "  Act  concerning  servants  "  and  the  "  Act  concerning  the 
introduction  of  negroes  and  mulattoes  into  this  Territory." 
Thus  fastened  on  the  Territory,  slavery  continued  to  distract 
the  politics  of  Illinois  for  fifteen  years. 

Of  all  the  men  who  suffered  for  the  part  they  took  in  the 
slavery  trouble  in  Indiana,  the  greatest  loser  was  William 
Henry  Harrison.  He  had  early  allied  himself  to  the  pro- 
slavery  men ;  had  called  the  convention  and  approved  the  me- 
morial of  1802  ;  had  passed  the  Servants  Act  of  1803 ;  had 
passed  the  indenture  laws  of  1805  and  1807 ;  and  had  sanc- 
tioned and  supported  every  petition  for  the  suspension  of  the 
antislavery  article  of  the  ordinance  that  went  to  Congress. 
With  the  triumph  of  the  antislavery  party  he  became  one  of 
the  most  hated  men  in  the  Territory.  His  party  was  in  the 
minority.  His  popularity  was  gone,  and  to  get  it  back  he  de- 
termined to  do  some  act  which  would  greatly  please  the  people. 
Nothing  at  that  moment  was  nearer  their  hearts  than  an  ex- 
tension of  their  Territory  northward.  Save  the  little  strip 
between  the  Ohio  boundary  and  the  Indian  line  of  1795,  a 
tract  about  Fort  "Wayne,  a  tract  two  miles  square  on  the  port- 
age of  the  Miami,  another  six  miles  square  at  Old  "Wea  Town 


1809.  TECUMTHE.  529 

on  the  Wabash,  and  a  strip  some  sixty  miles  wide  along  the 
Ohio  river  from  Ohio  to  Illinois,  not  a  foot  of  the  Territory 
had  been  relinquished  by  the  Indians.  How  long  and  how 
eagerly  the  people  desired  an  expansion  of  this  Territory  is 
apparent  in  their  many  petitions  to  Congress.  This  wish  Har- 
rison now  undertook  to  gratify.  Authority  was  accordingly 
asked  of  Secretary  Eustis  to  make  a  new  purchase  from  the 
Indians,  and  in  July,  1809,  it  was  given.*  The  chiefs  of  the 
tribes  who  claimed  the  soil — the  Delawares,  the  Pottawato- 
mies,  the  Miamis,  and  the  Eel  Rivers — were  quickly  assembled 
and  a  treaty  of  cession  signed,  sealed,  and  delivered  at  Fort 
Wayne.f  Another:}:  with  the  Kickapoos  followed,  and  the 
Indian  title  to  three  millions  of  acres  was  extinguished.  If 
this  purchase  made  him  once  more  popular  in  Indiana,  what 
followed  made  him  trebly  so  all  over  the  West,  for  the  direct 
and  immediate  result  was  the  battle  of  Tippecanoe. 

Upward  of  thirty  years  before,  the  squaw  of  a  Shawanee 
warrior  gave  birth  at  one  time  to  three  boys.  The  triplets 
grew  to  manhood.  One  is  said  to  have  been  an  Indian  of  no 
uncommon  ability.  But  two  of  the  brothers — Tecumthe,  the 
Crouching  Panther,  and  Olliwochica,  the  Open  Door — were 
prodigies.  Tecumthe,  bold,  daring,  and  energetic ;  skilful  in 
war,  wise  in  council,  an  orator  of  no  mean  order,  and  a  bitter 
hater  of  the  whites,  was  the  ideal  Indian  of  the  school  of 
Cooper.  But  with  these  showy  characteristics  were  mingled 
others  of  a  higher  kind.  His  self-command,  his  powers  of 
combination,  his  knowledge  of  men,  and  the  management 
of  men,  might  have  excited  the  envy  of  the  foremost  states- 
men of  his  time.  A  bitter  hater  of  the  white  man,  he  seems 
to  have  been  greatly  excited  by  the  long  series  of  treaties  by 
which  the  red  man  was  slowly  and  surely  being  driven  west- 
ward. The  cessions  of  1804  and  1805  especially  excited  him, 
and  it  was  then,  in  all  probability,  that  he  formed  the  purpose 
of  finishing  the  work  Pontiac  had  undertaken  and  left  undone. 
This  was  nothing  less  than  the  formation  of  an  Indian  repub- 
lic, than  the  union  of  every  Indian  tribe  from  Canada  to 

*  Secretary  Eustis  to  Harrison,  July  15,  1809.     American  State  Papers,  In- 
dian Affairs,  vol.  i,  p.  761. 

f  September  30,  1809.  J  December  9,  1809. 

TOL.    III. — 35. 


530  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

Florida  on  a  democratic  basis.  Tribal  organizations  and  dis- 
tinctions were  to  be  ignored.  The  chiefs  were  to  count  for 
little.  The  warriors  were  to  count  for  much.  They  were  to 
own  the  land,  and  everything  concerning  their  welfare — their 
wars,  their  treaties,  their  struggle  with  the  whites — was  to  be 
settled  at  a  great  congress,  not  of  chiefs,  but  of  Indian  repre- 
sentatives. In  this  vast  undertaking  he  was  most  ably  helped 
by  his  brother  Olliwochica,  better  known  as  the  Prophet. 

With  much  of  the  ability  of  Tecumthe,  the  Prophet  pos- 
sessed gifts  his  brother  did  not,  and,  taking  up  the  role  of 
medicine-man  and  prophet,  he  became  famous.  All  the  power 
which  Tecumthe  held  over  the  natural  side  of  Indian  charac- 
ter the  Prophet  held  over  the  supernatural  side.  In  the  hands 
of  the  two  brothers  the  Indians  were  therefore  mere  puppets. 
Seizing  on  the  flurry  of  excitement  which  followed  the  treaties 
of  1804  and  1805,  the  brothers  began  the  formation  of  their 
league  about  1806,  and  were  aided  by  two  events  which  hap- 
pened in  1807.  One  was  the  Leopard-Chesapeake  fight,  which 
led  the  Governor-General  of  Canada  to  seek  to  rouse  the  Indi- 
ans against  the  United  States.  The  other  was  a  treaty  of  ces- 
sion negotiated  by  Hull  at  Detroit,  which  accomplished  what 
the  Governor-General  attempted.  The  Indians  in  their  rage 
talked  openly  of  killing  the  chiefs  who  signed  it,  and  led  the 
agent  at  Fort  Wayne  to  believe  that  the  treaty  had  been  dic- 
tated by  the  British  for  the  very  purpose  of  exciting  them. 
The  northern  Indians  then  joined  Tecumthe's  league,  and  in 
1808  he  took  possession,  with  his  brother,  of  the  lands  on  Tip- 
pecanoe  Creek  just  where  it  enters  the  Wabash. 

The  place  was  a  strategic  point.  To  the  northwest  a  hundred 
miles  or  so  lay  Fort  Dearborn,  now  Chicago.  To  the  north- 
east lay  Fort  Wayne,  whence  there  was  water  communication 
with  Detroit.  Down  the  Wabash,  within  easy  reach,  was  Yin- 
cennes.  Apparently,  however,  the  Tippecanoe  Indians  had  no 
thought  of  strategy  and  war,  for  they  laid  out  a  town,  began 
to  cultivate  the  ground,  gathered  stock,  talked  peace,  and  set 
an  example  to  the  white  men  by  using  absolutely  no  whiskey. 
But  reports  which  came  to  the  War  Department  told  a  very 
different  story.  One  writer  declared  that  the  prayers  and  re- 
ligions exercises  at  the  Prophet's  town  were  constantly  min- 


1811.  INDIAN  TEOUBLES.  531 

gled  with  warlike  sports.  Another  reported  that  Indian  medi- 
cine-men had  been  busy  all  winter  persuading  the  tribes  on 
the  Mississippi  to  make  ready  for  a  frontier  war.  The  agent 
at  Fort  Wayne  wrote  that  the  Indians  thereabouts  were  excited 
over  the  conduct  of  the  Prophet ;  that  he  had  told  the  Chippe- 
was,  the  Ottawas,  and  the  Pottawatomies  that  the  Great  Spirit 
bade  them  take  the  tomahawk,  destroy  Yincennes,  and  sweep 
the  Ohio  from  Cincinnati  to  its  mouth.  Yet  another  sent  as- 
surances that  the  Prophet  would  soon  attack  the  settlements 
and  drive  the  people  from  the  "Wabash  and  the  "White  rivers.* 

Notwithstanding  this  information,  Secretary  Eustis  consid- 
ered it  wise  to  excite  the  Indians  yet  more,  and  bade  Harri- 
son make  the  treaty  of  1809,  which  deprived  them  of  the 
valley  of  the  Wabash,  the  last  hunting-ground  they  possessed 
in  Indiana.  The  Wyandots  now  joined  the  confederacy, 
from  which  came  forth  a  declaration  that  the  cession  was  void 
and  that  the  tribes  would  not  be  bound  by  it.  That  war  did 
instantly  break  out  was  due  to  the  British  traders,  who  assured 
Tecumthe  that  war  between  the  United  States  and  England 
was  close  at  hand  and  urged  him  to  await  the  signal  from 
Canada.  Reports  from  Sandusky,  from  Detroit,  from  Fort 
"Wayne,  from  St.  Louis,  from  Yincennes,  were  full  of  indica- 
tions of  coming  trouble.  There  were  gatherings  at  the  Proph- 
et's town.  The  English  agents  at  Fort  Maiden  were  supplying 
arms.  Tecumthe,  when  the  yearly  allowance  of  salt  reached 
him,  refused  to  receive  it.  In  this  state  of  affairs  Harrison 
sent  for  him,  and  in  August  a  long  conference  was  held  at  Yin- 
cennes. 

Tecumthe  announced  that  he  was  most  anxious  to  be  a 
friend  to  the  United  States.  Against  the  Great  Chief  at 
Washington  he  had  no  cause  for  complaint  save  the  land  pur- 
chases. If,  therefore,  the  late  purchases  were  given  up  and 
an  agreement  made  never  to  purchase  in  the  future  without 
consent  of  the  tribes,  Tecumthe  would  enter  into  a  firm  alli- 
ance with  the  United  States  and  join  her  in  war  against 
England.  If  not,  he  would  resist  with  force  every  attempt  to 
take  possession  of  the  new  purchase,  and  ally  himself  to  Eng- 

*  American  State  Papers.     Indian  Affairs,  vol.  i,  pp.  708,  799. 


532  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

land.  Harrison  assured  him  that  his  request  could  not  be 
considered,  and  the  two  parted.  The  Secretary  of  War  now 
wrote  Harrison  to  put  off  the  military  occupation  of  the  pur- 
chase, and  the  winter  of  1810  and  1811  saw  no  Indian  out- 
break on  the  "Wabash.  The  Indians,  however,  were  restive  and 
menacing.  Early  in  February,  Harrison  sent  word  to  Wash- 
ington rrom  Vincennes  that  the  British  agents  were  again  ex- 
citing the  tribes.*  The  commandant  at  Fort  Wayne  recom- 
mended a  garrison  on  the  Wabash  near  the  Prophet's  town,f 
while  from  Chicago  \  and  St.  Louis  *  came  word  of  horses 
stolen,  of  hostile  "  talks "  and  meetings  under  the  influence 
of  the  Prophet.  In  June,  as  the  annuity  of  salt  for  the  north- 
western tribes  was  on  its  way  up  the  Wabash,  the  Prophet 
seized  the  boat-load,  though  only  five  barrels  belonged  to 
him.  | 

Aroused  by  this,  Harrison  sent  him  a  letter,  or,  as  the  In- 
dians called  it,  a  talk,A  and  received  word  in  reply  that  Te- 
cumthe  would  come  to  Vincennes.  A  few  weeks  later,  accord- 
ingly, the  chief,  with  three  hundred  warriors,  entered  the 
town.Q  There  he  remained  for  two  days,  and  then  went 
southward  with  twenty  warriors  to  persuade  the  southern 
Indians  to  join  his  confederacy.  Hardly  were  the  Indians 
out  of  the  town  when  the  people  met  at  the  Seminary, 
adopted  resolutions,  and  ordered  an  address  to  be  sent  to 
Madison.  They  expressed  a  firm  belief  that  the  Tippecanoe 
settlement,  the  action  of  Tecumthe,  and  the  refusal  to  sell  the 
land  were  all  parts  of  a  British  scheme.  They  denounced  a 
temporizing  policy,  endorsed  the  promptness  of  Harrison, 
and  called  for  the  suppression  of  Tecumthe  and  the  breaking 
up  of  the  settlement  on  the  Wabash.  The  whole  frontier 
was  by  this  time  alarmed,  petitions  were  made  by  the  people 
of  Illinois  for  forts  and  block-houses,  and  Harrison  began  to 
gather  troops.  These,  as  fast  as  they  volunteered,  he  sent  up 

*  Harrison  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  February  6,  1811. 

f  Captain  Johnson  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  February  8,  1811. 
j  W.  Irvine  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  May  13,  1811. 

*  General  Clark  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  May  24,  1811. 
\  Harrison  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  June  19,  1811. 

A  Harrison  to  the  Prophet,  June  24,  1811.    Dawaon's  Life  of  Harrison,  p.  179. 
Q  Harrison  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  August  6,  1811. 


1811.  TIPPECANOE.  533 

the  "Wabash  to  form  a  camp,  build  a  fort,  and  take  formal 
possession  of  the  new  purchase.  While  the  soldiers  were  at 
work  on  the  fort,  a  sentinel,  one  night  in  October,  was  shot 
and  wounded.  Supposing  that  an  Indian  fired  the  shot,  and 
construing  it  to  be  the  beginning  of  war,  Harrison  sent  back 
to  Yincennes  for  more  troops,  broke  up  his  camp,  and  moved 
up  the  Wabash  to  the  north  boundary  of  the  purchase.  Over 
that  line  he  had  no  right  to  go  with  troops  unless  he  meant 
to  fight.  But  he  did  mean  to  fight,  and,  crossing  the  Yermil- 
ion  river,  moved  on,  till  about  sunset  on  the  evening  of  No- 
vember fifth  he  was  within  eleven  miles  of  Tippecanoe.  Dur- 
ing the  march  of  the  following  day  Indians  were  seen  in  front 
and  on  both  flanks.  Interpreters  were  then  sent  to  the  ad- 
vance guard  to  open  communications.  But  the  Indians  re- 
fused all  overtures.  Some  four  miles  from  the  Prophet's 
town  the  troops  entered  a  tract  of  country  broken  by  ravines 
and  covered  with  dense  woods  and  thickets.  Here  Harrison 
fully  expected  to  be  attacked.  To  his  surprise,  he  was  suffered 
to  pass  through  unmolested  to  an  open  plain  a  mile  and  a  half 
from  the  Prophet.  On  this  he  proposed  to  camp;  but  his 
officers  protested,  grew  urgent,  and,  Harrison  yielding,  ordered 
an  advance  with  the  intention  of  attacking  the  town.  At  that 
moment  three  Indians,  sent  with  peaceful  messages  from  the 
Prophet,  came  in  sight.  A  parley  followed,  and  Harrison 
agreed  to  go  into  camp  and  hold  a  conference  with  the  Prophet 
in  the  morning.  The  spot  chosen  for  the  camp  was  a  bench 
of  high  land  covered  with  oak  and  about  a  mile  to  the  north- 
west of  the  town.  The  front  or  side  toward  the  Indians  rose 
ten  feet  above  a  marshy  prairie,  and  the  rear  about  twenty  feet 
above  a  small  stream,  whose  banks  were  overgrown  with  wil- 
low and  dense  brushwood.  A  spot  better  suited  for  Indian 
warfare  could  not  have  been  chosen.  Nevertheless,  Harrison 
determined  to  occupy  it,  arranged  his  troops  in  the  form  of  a 
triangle  to  suit  the  shape  of  the  ground,  pitched  his  tents, 
threw  up  no  intrenchments,  but,  drawing  a  line  of  sentinels 
about  the  camp-fires,  awaited  the  morning.  His  custom  while 
on  the  march  had  been  to  call  the  troops  an  hour  before 
dawn  and  keep  them  under  arms  till  daylight.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  November  seventh  he  had  quitted  his  tent  about  a 


534  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

quarter  before  four,  to  give  the  signal  for  rousing  the  men, 
when  suddenly  a  sentinel  on  the  left  flank  fired  a  gun,  and  the 
Indians  came  yelling  into  camp.  The  firing  at  once  became 
general  along  the  whole  line,  save  for  a  short  space  on  the 
creek,  and  the  battle  of  Tippecanoe  began.  During  two  hours 
it  was  fought  in  the  darkness.  "With  daylight  the  troops 
charged  the  Indians,  dislodged  them  from  behind  the  trees, 
drove  them  into  the  swamp,  and  there  the  fighting  ended. 
The  slaughter  had  been  terrible,  for  the  light  of  the  camp- 
fires  had  greatly  helped  the  Indians'  aim.  How  fatal  that  aim 
was  is  well  shown  by  the  fate  of  one  unfortunate  officer — 
Captain  Spier  Spencer.  He  was  first  badly  wounded  in  the 
head.  Keeping  his  place  in  the  line,  he  was  shot  through  both 
thighs,  fell,  was  lifted  up,  was  instantly  shot  through  the  body, 
and  died.  But  he  did  not  fall  alone,  for,  when  the  account 
was  taken  of  the  casualties,  one  hundred  and  eighty-eight  men 
were  found  to  be  killed  or  wounded.  Thirty-four  of  these 
were  officers,  and  among  them  was  Major  Joseph  H.  Daveiss, 
who  died  some  hours  later  of  his  wounds.*  Harrison  could 
not  believe  that  the  battle  was  over,  and  all  that  day  and  all 
the  next  night  the  troops  remained  in  camp  awaiting  a  new 
attack.  None  was  made,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  eighth 
they  set  out  for  the  Prophet's  town,  which  they  found  de- 
serted. Such  had  been  the  haste  of  the  Indians  that  nothing 
was  carried  off  or  destroyed.  Taking  such  provisions  as  the 
soldiers  needed,  and  abandoning  camp  furniture  and  pri- 
vate baggage  to  make  room  in  the  wagons  for  the  wounded, 
Harrison  fired  the  village  and  began  his  march  homeward. 
On  November  eighteenth  he  reached  Yincennes.  His  friends 
received  him  with  every  manifestation  of  delight.  The  Legis- 
latures of  Kentucky,  of  Indiana,  and  of  Illinois  thanked  him 
for  his  services,  and  he  became  for  the  time  being  the  popular 
hero  of  the  "West.  But  with  praise  was  soon  mingled  blame. 
The  Federalists  of  Kentucky,  who  could  not  forget  that  Har- 
rison was  a  Republican,  set  upon  him  savagely.  They  de- 
nounced him  as  a  scheming  busybody.  They  accused  him 

*  Harrison  to  the  Secretary  of  War.  American  State  Papers.  Indian  Af- 
fairs, vol.  i,  pp.  776-779.  The  killed  were,  officers,  10;  privates,  52.  The 
wounded  were,  officers,  24 ;  privates,  102.  Total,  188. 


1811.  TECUMTHE  IN  THE  SOUTH.  535 

of  making  war  without  just  cause  and  for  his  own  ends,  and 
attributed  the  death  of  Daveiss  to  his  military  blunders. 

The  immediate  result  of  the  battle  fell  short  of  what  was 
expected.  While  the  flush  of  victory  lasted  it  was  supposed 
that  the  Indian  power  was  broken,  that  the  Confederacy 
would  fall  to  pieces,  and  that  Tecumthe  and  the  Prophet 
would  be  given  over  by  the  Indians  to  the  United  States. 
None  of  these  things  came  to  pass  immediately.  The  influ- 
ence of  the  Prophet  did  indeed  perceptibly  diminish.  Yet  in 
a  few  weeks  he  was  once  more  in  his  village  and,  with  the 
opening  of  the  new  year,  the  frontier  was  again  distracted  by 
rumors  of  a  war.  Tecumthe  had  returned  from  his  Southern 
tour. 

Leaving  Yincennes  in  July,  Tecumthe  and  his  twenty  war- 
riors hurried  southward,  crossed  the  country  of  the  Chickasaws 
and  the  Choctaws,  and  in  October  reached  Tuckaubatchee,  a 
Creek  town  on  the  Tallapoosa  river.  There  the  annual  council 
of  the  Creeks  was  to  be  held,  and  there  in  the  midst  of  a  great 
gathering  of  Indians — Creeks,  Choctaws,  and  Cherokees — 
brought  to  the  spot  by  the  report  that  he  would  be  present,  he 
delivered  his  talk.  In  the  speech  before  the  council  Tecumthe 
seems  to  have  urged  unity  and  peace.  But  his  presence,  or 
perhaps  the  fame  of  his  brother's  skill,  perhaps  his  conversa- 
tions in  private,  greatly  excited  the  younger  warriors.  Proph- 
ets began  to  appear  who  undertook  to  rouse  a  war  spirit 
against  the  whites,  and  to  overthrow  the  authority  of  the 
chiefs.  They  sang  the  songs  and  danced  the  dances  of  the 
Indians  of  the  lakes.  They  called  to  their  aid  all  that  was 
terrible  in  magic  and  all  that  was  grand  and  mysterious  in 
nature.  Amidst  shrieks,  cries,  and  the  signs  of  hysteria 
they  gave  forth  prophesies  predicting  all  manner  of  evils  for 
those  who  did  not  receive,  or,  receiving,  made  known  their 
"  talks."  Towns  which  refused  aid  to  the  prophets  were  to  be 
destroyed  by  the  lightning,  or  swallowed  by  earthquakes,  or 
covered  up  by  the  hills  that  were  to  be  toppled  over  upon 
them.  Such  as  did  give  aid  were  to  suffer  no  harm,  for  the 
prophets  would  draw  a  magic  line  around  them  and  make  the 
earth  an  impassable  quagmire.  "Well  knowing  that  the  arts  of 
peace  the  Creeks  had  so  long  been  cultivating  were  ruinous  to 


536  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

a  spirit  of  war,  the  prophets  became  the  enemies  of  civiliza- 
tion and  were  soon  calling  on  the  people  to  break  their  looms, 
kill  their  cows  and  hogs,  and  do  no  work  of  any  kind.  Of  all 
this  the  old  chiefs  of  the  confederacy  knew  nothing  and  looked 
on  the  dancing  and  singing  of  the  followers  of  the  prophets  as 
the  foolish  amusement  of  the  idle  and  the  giddy.  Having 
started  this  fanaticism  in  the  South,  Tecumthe  came  North 
through  the  Osage  country  and  reached  Indiana  in  December. 

That  he  would  seek  vengeance  on  the  settlers  for  the  vic- 
tory at  Tippecanoe  was  fully  expected.  No  surprise  was  felt, 
therefore,  when,  in  April,  1812,  war  began  along  the  frontier. 
During  that  month  ten  men  were  murdered  within  three  miles 
of  Fort  Dearborn.  Several  more  were  killed  near  Fort  Madi- 
son on  the  Mississippi,  near  Sandusky,  near  Defiance,  and  near 
Greenville  in  Ohio.  A  whole  family  was  massacred  not  five 
miles  from  Yincennes,  and  one  settler  scalped  near  the  Ohio 
and  another  on  White  river.* 

And  now  the  outlying  population  of  the  Territory  took  to 
flight,  and  a  stream  of  fugitives  came  pouring  through  Yin- 
cennes on  their  way  to  Kentucky.  Still  others,  abandoning 
their  farms,  took  refuge  in  block-houses  or  such  temporary 
forts  as  they  could  build  hastily,  where  they  suffered  terribly 
for  the  necessaries  of  life.f  Even  Yincennes  was  not  thought 
safe,  and  it  seemed  not  unlikely  that,  if  a  general  Indian  rising 
took  place,  Indiana  would  be  depopulated.  But  Tecumthe 
most  happily  was  not  ready.  Meantime  he  continued  to  as- 
sert his  friendship  for  his  white  brothers,  treated  the  affair  at 
Tippecanoe  as  of  slight  moment,  declared  that  the  border  mur- 
ders were  the  work  of  the  Pottawotomies,  over  whom  he  had 
no  control,  and  waited  for  the  signal  from  Canada. 

While  one  agent  of  the  Government  was  thus  exciting  the 
Indians  to  war  in  the  far  Northwest,  another  agent  was  doing 
his  best  to  excite  the  Spaniards  and  the  Indians  in  the  far  South- 
east. Under  authority  of  the  act  of  January  fifteenth,  1811, 
which  was  no  longer  a  secret,  \  Madison  selected  General  George 

*  American  State  Papers.     Indian  Affairs,  vol.  i,  pp.  807,  808. 
f  Harrison  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  ibid.,  p.  808. 

\  Though  ordered  by  Congress  not  to  be  made  public,  a  copy  of  the  law  was 
obtained  and  published  by  the  Connecticut  Mirror  and  by  the  True  American. 


1811.  AMELIA  ISLAND.  537 

Matthews  and  Colonel  John  McKee  to  be  commissioners  to 
proceed  to  East  Florida.  The  purpose  of  the  United  States 
was  to  take  possession  of  East  Florida  and  hold  it,  lest,  in  the 
turbulent  condition  of  the  Spanish  monarch,  some  foreign 
power  should  seize  it.  The  country  was,  however,  at  some 
future  day,  to  be  returned  to  Spain.  Matthews  and  McKee 
were  therefore  instructed  to  take  peaceful  possession  if  the 
Governor  would  surrender  it,  or  forcible  possession  if  they 
had  any  reason  to  suspect  the  approach  of  a  foreign  power. 
Arriving  at  St.  Mary's,  a  little  town  on  the  American  side  of 
the  boundary  line,  Matthews  found  a  state  of  affairs  which 
seemed  to  him  to  justify  instant  possession  on  the  principle 
of  self-preservation.  The  river  was  full  of  British  craft  busily 
engaged  in  smuggling  British  goods,  wares,  and  merchandise 
into  the  United  States  in  violation  of  the  Non-importation 
Law.  Amelia  Island,  which  lay  off  the  Florida  coast  just  at 
the  mouth  of  the  St.  Mary's  river,  was  a  nest  of  smugglers. 
Fernandina,  the  Spanish  town  on  the  island,  was  a  mere  depot 
for  illicit  trade.  The  authority  of  Spain  was  purely  nominal, 
for  there  was  in  fact  no  law  of  any  kind  in  force. 

Matthews,  however,  set  about  his  work,  opened  negotiations 
with  the  local  authorities,  and,  after  spending  six  months  in 
making  inquiries,  concluded  that  quiet  possession  was  not  to 
be  obtained.  The  profits  of  the  smuggling  trade  were  too 
great  to  be  willingly  surrendered.  Supposing  that  the  coun- 
try was  to  be  taken  by  some  means,  he  therefore  recommended 
Madison  to  employ  force.  The  people  of  East  Florida  should, 
he  thought,  be  encouraged  to  do  what  the  people  of  New 
Feliciana  had  already  done — revolt  and  declare  East  Florida 
independent,  and  bring  it  over  to  the  United  States.  Help 
would  be  needed  to  accomplish  this.  But  if  the  President 
would  furnish  the  commandant  at  St.  Mary's  with  two  hun- 
dred stand  of  arms  and  fifty  horseman's  swords,  Matthews 
would  see  that  they  reached  the  people  without  in  any  way 
committing  the  United  States.  These  views  were  yet  more 
fully  stated  to  "William  H.  Crawford,  a  Georgia  Senator,  and 
by  him  were  communicated  to  Madison.  As  no  objection  was 
made,  Matthews  presumed  that  silence  gave  consent,  and  began 
to  organize  the  revolution.  As  agents  he  selected  the  post- 


538  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.       CHAP.  xxn. 

master  at  St.  Mary's,  the  United  States  Deputy  Marshal,  and  a 
well-known  Spanish  subject  named  John  H.  Mclntosh.  By 
them  in  the  course  of  the  winter  and  spring  a  band  of  some 
two  hundred  adventurers  was  quietly  collected  and  armed, 
and  one  day  in  March,  1812,  was  taken  over  St.  Mary's  river 
into  Florida.  There,  on  a  bluff  some  six  miles  above  Amelia 
Island,  they  camped  and  raised  a  white  flag,  on  which  was  a 
soldier  charging  bayonet  and  the  motto,  "Solus  populi — su- 
prema  lex" 

On  the  island  was  Fernandina,  a  Spanish  post  held  by  ten 
men  under  the  command  of  Don  Justo  Lopez.  The  com- 
mander of  the  patriots,  as  they  called  themselves,  was  John 
H.  Mclntosh,  and  by  him,  on  the  morning  of  March  fifteenth, 
a  flag  of  truce  was  sent  to  Lopez.  The  determination  of  the 
United  States,  so  the  note  ran,  to  take  possession  of  East 
Florida  had  induced  some  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  province 
to  do  it  themselves.  Accordingly,  under  the  patronage  of  the 
United  States,  they  had  taken  possession  of  the  country  from 
St.  Mary's  river  to  St.  John's,  and  now  summoned  Fernandina 
to  surrender.  In  the  harbor  were  then  lying  at  anchor  nine 
gun-boats  belonging  to  the  United  States.  The  commander 
of  the  fleet  was  Hugh  Campbell,  whose  duty  in  those  waters 
was  to  stop  the  smuggling  and  enforce  the  Non-importation 
Law.  To  him  Lopez  despatched  two  messengers  with  a  note 
telling  what  the  patriots  had  stated,  and  asking  if  he  had 
orders  to  aid  them.  Two  other  messengers  were  at  the  same 
time  sent  off  with  a  note  of  similar  purport  to  Major  Laval, 
who  commanded  the  United  States  troops  at  Point  Peter. 
Campbell  referred  the  whole  matter  to  General  Matthews. 
But  Laval  replied  that  he  had  no  orders  to  help  the  patriots. 
Now,  it  so  happened  that  General  Matthews  was  at  that  mo- 
ment in  the  camp  engaged,  as  the  commandant  assured  the 
messengers,  in  attempting  to  entice  the  troops  to  join  the 
patriots.  With  him,  therefore,  the  messengers  had  an  inter- 
view, told  him  plainly  that  the  patriots  were  Americans, 
brought  into  Florida  under  his  promise  of  five  hundred  acres 
of  land  to  each  of  them  if  the  revolution  was  successful,  and 
that  in  the  eyes  of  Spain  the  affair  was  an  American  invasion 
of  her  territory.  The  messengers  then  went  on  to  the  Patriot 


1812.     THE  UNITED  STATES  OCCUPIES  THE  ISLAND.       539 

camp,  assured  the  commander  that  Lopez  would  not  under 
any  circumstances  surrender  to  him,  but  would  treat  with  the 
United  States.  An  agreement  was  therefore  made  that  all 
parties  should  meet  on  the  morrow  in  the  patriot  camp  on 
Belle  river.  But  the  conference  accomplished  nothing,  and 
the  messengers  returned  to  Amelia  Island  to  find  Fernan- 
dina  under  the  guns  of  the  United  States  gun-boats.  Early  in 
the  morning  Campbell  had  dropped  down  from  St.  Mary's  and 
taken  position  before  the  town.  In  the  afternoon  the  patriots 
came  down  the  river  in  boats.  The  garrison,  some  ten  men, 
marched  out  and  grounded  arms,  Lopez  gave  up  his  sword, 
and  Mclntosh  hauled  down  the  Spanish  flag  and  ran  up  that 
of  the  patriots  instead.  In  the  articles  of  capitulation  was 
one  which  declared  that  in  twenty-four  hours  after  the  capitu- 
lation the  island  should  be  surrendered  to  the  United  States, 
but  should  be  exempt  from  the  Non-importation  Law.  This 
was  done,  and  before  noon  on  March  eighteenth,  1812,  the 
flag  of  the  United  States  was  flying  over  the  fort  at  Fer- 
nandina,  and  a  company  of  United  States  riflemen  were  in 
possession.  The  patriots  then  set  off  to  reduce  St.  Augus- 
tine. 

With  them  went  a  detachment  of  United  States  regulars. 
Marching  to  within  two  miles  of  the  town,  the  army  camped 
at  a  place  called  Fort  Moosa.  When  Madison  heard  of  these 
things  he  recalled  Matthews,  and  requested  Governor  Mitchell, 
of  Georgia,  to  take  his  place.  Should  he,  on  reaching  St. 
Mary's,  see  no  prospect  of  foreign  occupation,  he  was  to  with- 
draw the  troops,  restore  Amelia  Island,  and  take  care  that 
those  who,  relying  on  the  protection  of  the  United  States,  had 
engaged  in  the  revolution,  did  not  fall  a  prey  to  the  anger  of 
the  Spanish  governor. 

Mitchell  willingly  accepted  the  mission,  arid  hastened  to 
St.  Mary's,  where  he  found  the  situation  more  serious  than 
ever.  The  patriots  showed  no  disposition  to  retire.  Indeed, 
at  a  meeting  held  at  the  camp  before  St.  Augustine,  they  called 
for  five  hundred  more  troops,  and  pledged  their  sacred  honor 
not  to  lay  down  their  arms  till  independence  was  secured.  Hav- 
ing no  money,  they  promised  that  all  who  should  join  them 
should  be  paid  in  land  or  in  such  property  as  might  be  taken 


540  ECONOMIC  STATE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.      CHAP.  xxn. 

from  their  enemies.*  Before  the  new  troops  could  be  enlisted 
the  Spaniards  armed  a  schooner,  came  up  the  creek,  shelled 
Camp  Moosa,  and  forced  the  patriots  to  fall  back  to  Pass  Na- 
varro,f  and  then  to  St.  John's. 

Alarmed  by  this  attack,  Governor  Mitchell  sent  to  Savan- 
nah for  aid.  The  Republican  Blues  and  the  Savannah  Volun- 
teer  Guard  at  once  offered,  and  were  soon  on  their  way  to  St. 
Mary's.  £  Their  arrival  was  quickly  followed  by  an  express 
bearing  news  of  the  declaration  of  war.  Seventeen  English 
ships  at  anchor  were  instantly  seized,  a  great  quantity  of  float- 
ing timber  cut  for  the  use  of  the  English  navy  was  confiscated, 
and  a  new  call  sent  to  Georgia  for  troops.  A  hundred  men 
from  the  region  about  Milledgeville  responded. 

The  fate  of  West  Florida  had  been  settled  meantime  by 
Congress.  So  much  as  lay  south  of  thirty-one  degrees  and 
between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Pearl  rivers  was  by  an  act  * 
added  to  what  was  once  the  Territory  of  Orleans,  but  was 
then  the  State  of  Louisiana.  J  So  much  as  lay  between  the 
Pearl  and  the  Perdido  was  by  another  act  annexed  to  Mis- 
sissippi Territory.A  The  act  was  almost  a  declaration  of 
war ;  for  when  Madison  signed  it  the  Spanish  flag  was  flying 
at  Mobile,  and  Spanish  soldiers  held  the  country  in  the  name 
of  Ferdinand  VII. 

*  May  2,  1812. 
f  May  17,  1812. 
J  June  12,  1812. 

*  Act  of  April  14,  1812. 

H  Act  of  April  8,  1812.     Went  into  effect  April  30,  1812. 
A  Act  of  May  14,  1812. 


1812.  THE  FRONTIER. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

MAKING   KEADY   FOE   WAR. 

THE  proclamation  of  Madison  declaring  the  United  States 
at  war  with  Great  Britain  and  her  dependencies  was  issued  at 
Washington  on  the  nineteenth  of  June,  1812.  To .  under- 
stand the  dangers  and  the  difficulties  into  which  the  country 
was  thus  plunged  it  will  be  well  to  consider  what  was  to  be 
done  and  what  were  the  means  of  doing  it.  In  the  first  place, 
an  enormous  extent  of  frontier  on  the  northern  and  north- 
western boundary  line,  sparsely  settled  and  almost  cut  off  from 
the  East  by  lack  of  good  roads  and  easy  ways  of  reaching  it, 
was  to  be  defended  against  British  regulars,  Canadian  militia, 
and  the  Indians.  Though  this  frontier  stretched  from  East- 
port  to  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  undefined  Oregon 
country  beyond,  the  part  to  be  defended,  it  is  true,  was  not 
much  more  than  a  thousand  miles  in  length.  The  region 
northwest  of  the  Mississippi  was  a  wilderness.  The  country 
on  the  south  shore  of  Lake  Superior  was  not  inhabited.  At 
the  foot  of  the  falls  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  on  the  Canadian  side, 
was  an  English  trading  post,  where  Indians  from  the  Missouri, 
and  factors  from  Montreal  met  each  summer  to  barter  furs  for 
gunpowder  and  rum.  But  no  Indian  beheld  the  flag  of  the 
United  States  till  he  came  in  sight  of  the  Straits  of  Mackinaw, 
where,  on  the  island  of  Michilimackinaw,  was  the  most  north- 
western part  of  the  United  States  east  of  the  Rockies.  At  the 
foot  of  Lake  Michigan  was  another  feeble  post,  Fort  Dear- 
born. But  neither  on  Lake  Huron,  nor  along  the  banks  of 
Huron  river,  nor  on  Lake  St.  Clair,  was  there  a  post  or  a 
force  of  any  kind.  On  the  Maumee  was  Fort  Wayne;  on 
the  Wabash  was  Fort  Harrison.  But  the  only  fort  that  could 


542  MAKING  READY  FOR  "WAR.  OHAP.  xxm. 

be  called  formidable,  the  only  gathering  of  troops  that  could 
be  considered  effective  in  the  whole  northwest  was  at  Detroit, 
which,  for  military  purposes,  was  regarded  as  the  western  end 
of  the  frontier.  The  eastern  was  Lake  Champlain,  beyond 
which  the  woods  of  New  Hampshire  and  Maine  formed  a 
barrier  no  army  would  think  of  attempting  to  break  through. 
Between  these  limits  "was  the  exposed  frontier  made  up  of  two 
short  rivers,  three  great  lakes,  and  so  much  of  the  forty-fifth 
parallel  as  lies  between  the  St.  Lawrence  and  Lake  Champlain. 
This  was  wholly  defenceless,  for  there  was  no  navy  on  the 
lakes,  and  there  were  no  defences  of  any  consequence  on  the 
land. 

The  condition  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard  was  even  worse. 
It  stretched  from  Passamaquoddy  southward  through  fourteen 
degrees  of  latitude  to  St.  Mary's  river;  it  abounded  in  fine 
harbors  and  was  broken  by  large  bays  and  cut  by  large  rivers 
navigable  far  into  the  heart  of  the  country,  yet  for  defence 
against  the  greatest  of  naval  powers  it  depended  on  a  navy  of 
sixteen  frigates,  ships,  and  armed  brigs,  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  gun-boats,  and  such  forts  as  had  been  hastily  built  in  the 
exciting  times  of  1798  and  1807. 

The  Southern  frontier  was  quite  as  exposed.  There  were 
indeed  troops  at  Amelia  Island,  at  Fort  Stoddert,  at  New  Or- 
leans, and  on  the  Eed  river ;  but  the  towns  of  St  Augustine, 
Pensacola,  Mobile,  and  the  Sabine  country  were  in  Spanish 
hands.  Spain  was  closely  allied  with  England,  and  no  one 
could  say  how  soon  these  towns  and  forts  might  be  occupied 
by  British  troops,  nor  what  the  Indians,  aroused  by  the  visit 
of  Tecumthe  and  supplied  with  British  guns  and  powder,  might 
do.  Westward  and  northwestward  of  the  Mississippi  there 
was  no  boundary  line  and  no  frontier  to  defend  save  that  com- 
manded by  the  far-away  port  of  Astoria  lately  built  on  the 
Columbia  river. 

The  army  on  which  was  to  fall  the  brunt  of  defending  this 
frontier  was,  when  war  was  declared,  partly  in  the  field  and 
partly  on  paper.  The  part  in  the  field  consisted  of  the  ten  old 
regiments  with  ranks  half  filled  and  scattered  all  over  the 
country  on  garrison  duty ;  that  on  paper  consisted  of  the  thir- 
teen new  regiments  of  regulars  to  be  enlisted  for  the  conquest 


1812.  BOUNTY  FOR  VOLUNTEERS.  543 

of  Canada,  the  fifty  thousand  volunteers  yet  to  be  raised,  and 
the  one  hundred  thousand  militia  to  be  detached  from  the 
States  and  mustered  into  the  service  of  the  United  States. 
Enlistments  for  the  regular  army  began  in  March.  Every 
man  who  enlisted  for  five  years  was  given  a  bounty  of  sixteen 
dollars  down,  and  was  promised  food,  clothing,  and  five  dol- 
lars per  month,  and,  at  the  end  of  the  time  of  service,  fifteen 
dollars  and  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  land.  Yet  when 
June  came,  though  no  full  returns  had  been  made,  it  was  well 
known  that  four  thousand  soldiers  had  not  been  secured. 

Even  when  war  actually  began  and  the  Canadians  might  any 
day  come  over  the  border,  when  the  Indians  might  sweep  the 
frontier,  or  an  English  fleet  destroy  New  Orleans,  the  people 
showed  no  disposition  to  fill  the  ranks  of  the  regular  army. 
Congress  had  by  that  time  increased  the  war  establishment  to 
thirty-two  regiments  which,  with  the  engineers  and  artificers, 
made  an  army  on  paper  of  thirty-six  thousand  seven  hundred 
men.  Yet  not  one  third  of  it  was  raised.  Of  the  fifty  thou- 
sand volunteers,  not  one  twelfth  had  offered.  After  the  decla- 
ration, in  the  States  where  the  war  was  popular,  or  fear  of  the 
Indians  pressing,  the  ranks  of  the  volunteer  regiments  began 
to  fill.  But  in  New  England  every  expedient  had  to  be  re- 
sorted to  in  order  to  get  soldiers.  Then  was  it  that  men  who 
had  made  up  their  minds  to  stay  at  home  made  tempting  offers 
to  such  as  would  go.  The  Republicans  of  Newtown,  in  Massa- 
chusetts, agreed  to  pay  any  inhabitant  of  the  town  who  would 
volunteer  four  dollars  and  fifty  cents  per  month  while  in  the 
field.  Roxbury  voted  to  raise  the  pay  of  her  citizens  serving 
in  the  army  to  fifteen  dollars  per  month.  West  Cambridge 
was  more  generous  yet,  and  besides  raising  the  monthly  pay 
of  fifteen  added  a  bounty  of  five.  At  Lexington  the  bounty 
was  six  and  the  pay  ten  dollars.  This  made  the  war  fever 
rage  so  fiercely  that  a  draft  was  necessary  to  determine  who 
should  stay  at  home.  In  Kentucky,  popular  as  the  war  was, 
the  Legislature  thought  it  prudent,  in  order  to  keep  troops  in 
the  field,  to  give  each  volunteer  seven  dollars  per  month  in 
addition  to  the  five  paid  him  by  the  United  States. 

Where  the  war  was  unpopular  these  inducements  accom- 
plished nothing,  and  it  became  plain  that  the  chief  dependence 


544  MAKING  KEADY  FOR  WAR.  CHAP.  xxm. 

must  be  the  militia.  But  when,  in  accordance  with  the  law, 
the  Secretary  of  War  issued  the  call  for  militia,  the  Govern- 
ers  of  three  New  England  States  flatly  refused  to  obey.  From 
Massachusetts  were  asked  forty-one  companies  to  be  scattered 
along  the  coast  from  Newport,  in  Khode  Island,  to  Castine 
and  Machias.  From  Connecticut  five  companies  were  re- 
quired, some  to  do  duty  at  New  London  and  some  to  man  the 
battery  on  New  Haven  Bay.  But  Roger  Griswold,  then  Gov- 
ernor of  Connecticut,  declared  the  call  was  unconstitutional 
and  did  not  heed  it.  The  Federal  Constitution,  he  held,  named 
three  purposes,  and  but  three,  for  which  the  President  could 
call  on  the  States  to  furnish  militia.  These  three  were,  to 
repel  invasion,  to  put  down  insurrection,  and  to  execute  the 
laws  of  the  United  States.  No  State  was  invaded ;  no  insur- 
rection was  going  on ;  no  laws  were  being  defied.  The  call 
could  not  therefore  legally  and  constitutionally  be  made.  Had 
any  of  these  conditions  existed,  the  action  of  the  President 
would  still  have  been  unlawful,  for,  while  the  Constitution 
provided  that  militia  should  be  commanded  by  officers  chosen 
by  the  States,  those  new  wanted  were  to  be  commanded  by 
the  United  States  officers  at  Fort  Trumbull. 

Holding  such  views,  Griswold  at  once  summoned  the  Coun- 
cil of  State,  laid  the  whole  matter  before  them,  and  asked  what 
to  do.  The  Council,  consisting  of  the  Lieutenant-Governor 
and  twelve  assistants  was  the  upper  house  of  the  State  Legis- 
lature, voted  that  the  Governor's  views  were  correct  and  urged 
him  not  to  comply  with  the  requisition.  Against  this  the  Sec- 
retary of  War  protested  strongly,  declared  the  reason  given 
for  keeping  back  the  militia  as  amazing  as  the  act  itself,  and 
assured  the  Governor  that,  in  the  opinion  of  the  President, 
danger  of  invasion  did  exist  and  that  this  was  justification 
enough.  Again  the  Council  was  gathered,  and  again  the  Gov- 
ernor was  advised  not  to  comply.  By  the  Constitution  it  was 
said  certain  powers  were  "delegated  to  the  United  States," 
while  certain  other  powers  were  "  reserved  to  the  States  re- 
spectively." Among  the  powers  delegated  were  those  of  mak- 
ing war,  raising  armies,  of  calling  out  the  militia  to  quell  in- 
surrection, to  repel  invasion,  to  execute  the  laws  of  the  Union. 
Congress  had  seen  fit  to  use  the  first  of  these  and  declare  war 


1812.  REFUSALS  TO  DETACH  THE  MILITIA.  545 

before  it  had  the  wisdom  to  use  the  second  and  raise  an  army. 
Were  the  States,  therefore,  bound  to  find  it  an  army,  to  detach 
their  militia,  and  send  them  into  the  forts  and  garrisons  of  the 
United  States  to  do  the  duty  of  regular  soldiers  ?  No.  The 
sovereignty  of  the  State  must  not  be  encroached  on,  and  it 
was  not  consistent  with  the  powers  reserved  to  order  the 
militia  of  the  State  into  the  service  of  the  United  States  when 
none  of  the  cases  mentioned  in  the  Constitution  existed. 

That  his  position  might  be  made  stronger  still,  Griswold 
now  called  an  extra  session  of  the  General  Assembly,  and,  in 
a  long  message,  told  what  he  had  done.  The  Assembly  sent 
the  matter  to  a  joint  committee,  and  the  committee  made  a 
long  report.  The  war  was  denounced ;  the  conduct  of  the 
Governor  was  approved.  The  doctrine  of  State  rights  was  laid 
down  in  a  form  which,  in  1798,  every  Federalist  would  have 
pronounced  odiously  Democratic.  Connecticut,  the  report  set 
forth,  was  a  free,  sovereign,  and  independent  State.  The 
Union  was  a  confederation  of  States.  The  United  States  was 
a  confederated  and  not  a  national  republic.  The  Governor  was 
under  obligations  just  as  high  and  solemn  to  support  the  Con- 
stitution of  Connecticut  as  he  was  to  support  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States.  He  must  not  suffer  her  sovereign  rights 
to  be  invaded,  and  one  of  these  sovereign  rights  was  the  power 
to  officer  and  control  the  militia.  The  Assembly  accepted  the 
report  and  defended  the  Governor's  conduct  in  an  address  to 
the  people. 

In  Massachusetts,  the  Governor  sought  advice  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  State,  and  asked  two  questions  of  the 
judges.  Did  the  Governor  of  a  State,  when  a  call  was  made 
by  the  President  for  militia,  have  a  right  to  determine  whether 
either  of  the  constitutional  conditions  for  making  such  a  call 
existed  ?  When  the  militia  were  called  into  the  service  of  the 
United  States,  could  they  be  commanded  by  any  other  persons 
than  their  own  officers  and  the  President  of  the  United  States  ? 
On  the  bench  sat  Theophilus  Parsons  and  Samuel  Sewell  and 
Isaac  Parker,  men  whose  names  are  still  remembered  in  the 
judicial  annals  of  our  country.  Their  ability  can  not  be  ques- 
tioned. Nor  is  it  for  a  moment  to  be  supposed  that  they 
would  suffer  the  opinions  which  they  held  on  politics  to  influ- 
VOL.  in. — 36. 


546  MAKING  READY  FOE  WAR.  CHAP.  xxni. 

ence  the  decisions  which  they  made  on  the  bench.  Yet  their 
answers  were  :  Yes,  to  the  first  question  ;  and  to  the  second, 
Ko. 

When  the  Governor  of  Rhode  Island  received  his  requisi- 
tion he  called  a  council  of  war  and  asked  two  questions: 
Could  the  militia  be  detached  save  for  either  of  the  three  pur- 
poses named  in  the  Federal  Constitution  ?  To  this  the  coun- 
cil said  'No  I  They  were  then  asked  •  who,  when  the  militia 
were  called  for,  was  to  decide  whether  any  of  the  three  con- 
ditions existed,  and  to  this  the  council  answered,  The  Governor. 

To  command  the  army  thus  slowly  gathering  under  these 
disheartening  circumstances  the  President  had  selected  and 
the  Senate  had  confirmed  a  long  list  of  officers.  As  a  class, 
they  were  old,  vain,  respectable,  and  incapable.  Henry  Dear- 
born,* now  made  senior  Major-General,  was  past  sixty,  had 
been  a  deputy  quartermaster-general  in  the  army  of  the  Revo- 
lution and  colonel  of  a  New  Hampshire  regiment  after  the 
peace,  had  sat  in  the  Cabinet  of  Jefferson,  and  had  been  col- 
lector of  the  port  of  Boston.  Thomas  Pinckney,  the  junior 
Major-General, f  was  sixty-three,  and  acquired  what  little  he 
knew  of  war  in  the  guerilla  campaigns  in  the  South.  Under 
Marion  and  Sumter  he  had  chased  Tories  and  harassed  the 
British,  had  served  on  the  staff  of  Horatio  Gates,  and  had  been 
a  politician  ever  since  the  peace.  In  1789  he  was  made  judge 
for  the  District  of  South  Carolina,  Minister  Plenipotentiary 
at  London  in  1792,  Envoy  Extraordinary  to  his  Catholic  Majes- 
ty in  1794,  had  negotiated  the  first  of  our  treaties  with  Spain, 
and  had  been  a  member  erf  Congress  in  the  stormy  days  of 
Adams's  term. 

At  the  head  of  the  list  of  brigadier-generals  stood  the  name 
of  James  Wilkinson,  the  most  infamous  man  then  wearing  the 
uniform  of  the  United  States.  He  had  just  been  tried  by  a 
court-martial  on  the  ground  that  he  was  a  pensioner  of  Spain, 
an  accomplice  of  Aaron  Burr,  an  officer  insubordinate,  negli- 
gent, wasteful,  and  corrupt.  Every  charge  was  well  found- 
ed. But  the  Court  had  seen  fit  to  acquit  him,  Madison  ap- 

*  Nominated  January  20,  1812.     Confirmed  January  27,  1812.     Yeas,  27; 
nays,  9. — Executive  Journal  of  the  Senate. 

f  Nominated  March  24,  1812.     Confirmed  March  26,  1812.— Ibid. 


1812.  THE  NAVY.  547 

proved  the  verdict,  and  he  was  retained  in  his  old  com- 
mand. With  him  as  juniors  were  joined  Wade  Hampton, 
Joseph  Bloomfield,  once  a  major  in  the  Continental  Army 
and  for  ten  years  past  Governor  of  New  Jersey ;  James  Win- 
chester, of  Tennessee,  William  Polk,  of  North  Carolina,* 
and  William  Hull,  Territorial  Governor  of  Michigan.f  Win- 
field  Scott,  who  knew  that  army  well,  declares  that  of  the  old 
officers  many  were  sunk  in  sloth  and  many  ruined  by  intem- 
perate drinking;  that  of  the  new  appointments  some  were 
positively  bad  and  others  indifferent,  and  that,  as  a  class,  the 
officers  were  swaggerers,  political  dependents,  poor  gentlemen 
who,  as  the  phrase  went,  were  fit  for  nothing  else. 

Yery  different  was  the  condition  of  our  navy.  To  the 
English  seaman  who  looked  over  the  navy  list,  who  counted 
up  the  score  of  frigates,  corvettes,  armed  brigs,  and  schooners, 
who  recalled  the  affair  of  the  Leopard  and  the  Chesapeake, 
and  had  been  present  many  a  time  when  American  citizens 
were  taken  from  the  decks  of  American  ships,  both  the  navy 
and  the  spirit  of  the  people  seemed  beneath  contempt.  Yet 
no  better  navy  existed  anywhere.  No  frigates  finer  than  the 
Constitution  and  the  United  States  were  then  afloat.  No 
captains  abler  than  Hull,  than  Decatur,  than  Bainbridge,  than 
Perry,  than  Lawrence,  sailed  under  the  flag  of  any  nation. 
Nor  were  the  crews  one  whit  behind  the  officers  in  all  that 
appertains  to  seamanship  and  gunnery.  Not  a  vessel  but  had 
before  the  mast  some  men  who  as  navigators,  as  commanders, 
as  cool  and  deliberate  fighters,  will  bear  comparison  with  the 
average  English  captain.  The  reason  is  plain.  Our  whole 
coast  from  Eastport  to  the  Chesapeake  was  a  great  nursery  of 
seamen.  The  East  Indiamen  and  the  West  Indiamen,  the  fish- 
ing fleet,  the  whalers,  and  the  sealers  would,  under  any  cir- 
cumstances, have  been  a  nautical  school  of  no  mean  order. 
But  the  enormous  expansion  of  the  neutral  carrying  trade,  in 
consequence  of  the  European  wars,  put  up  the  wages  of  the 
common  sailor  to  thirty  dollars  a  month,  and  drew  into  the 
merchant  marine  and  placed  before  the  mast  thousands  of 

*  Nominated  March  24,  1812.     Confirmed  March  25,  1812. 
f  Nominated  April  3,  1812.     Confirmed  April  8,  1812. 


548 


MAKING  READY  FOB   WAR. 


CHAP.  xxin. 


men  who,  but  for  such  wages,  would  have  sailed  their  own 
smacks  to  the  Grand  Banks,  or  been  engaged  in  the  coasting 
trade  on  their  own  account,  or  would  have  followed  some 
money-getting  occupation  on  land.  Shrewd,  intelligent,  self- 
respecting,  independent,  accustomed  to  think  for  themselves, 
they  formed  a  body  of  men  the  English  navy  could  not  match. 
Patriotism,  not  a  press  gang,  brought  them  to  the  decks  of  the 
national  ships,  and,  once  there,  they  submitted  cheerfully  to  a 
discipline  and  acquired  a  skill  in  the  use  of  the  guns  which  is 
simply  astonishing. 

The  number  of  officers  on  the  navy  rolls  in  1812  was  pre- 
cisely five  hundred.  The  number  of  seamen,  ordinary  seamen, 
and  boys  in  the  service  was  five  thousand  two  hundred  and 
thirty.  The  marine  corps  numbered  fifteen  hundred  and 
twenty-three.  Of  the  seamen,  three  thousand  *  were  assigned 
to  duty  in  forts,  on  the  gun-boats,  on  the  lakes,  or  in  the  six 
navy  yards,  f  The  rest  were  on  the  sixteen  frigates,  corvettes, 
brigs,  and  sloops  which,  with  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  gun- 
boats, made  the  navy  of  the  United  States.:}: 

Toward  feeding,  clothing,  arming,  and  paying  the  troops 

*  More  exactly,  2,884. 

t  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire ;  Charlestown,  Massachusetts ;  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  Washington,  Gosport. 

\  Disregarding  the  condemned  hulks  New  York  and  Boston  and  the  John 
Adams,  the  navy  consisted  of  the  following  sLips : 


Guns. 

Name. 

Bulk  at. 

"When 
built 

Tonnage. 

Cost. 

44 

United  States  

Philadelphia  . 

1797 

1  576 

$299  336 

44 

Constitution  

Boston  

1797 

1,576 

302  718 

44 

President  

New  York  . 

1800 

1  576 

220  910 

38 

Constellation  

Baltimore   

1797 

1  265 

814  212 

38 

Congress  

Portsmouth  ...    . 

1799 

1  268 

197  246 

38 

Norfolk  

1799 

1,244 

220  677 

32 

Essex  

Salem  

1799 

860 

139  362 

28 

Adams  

New  York  .... 

1799 

560 

76  622 

18 

Hornet  

Baltimore  

1805 

480 

52  603 

18 

Wasp  

Washington  

1806 

450 

40000 

]6 

Areus    . 

Boston 

1803 

298 

37428 

16 

Syren  

Philadelphia  

1803 

250 

82  521 

14 

Nautilus  

Baltimore  

1803 

185 

18  763 

14 

Vixen  

Baltimore  

1803 

185 

20  872 

12 

Enterprise  

Baltimore  

1799 

166 

16,240 

12 

Viper  

Purchased  

1810 

148 

1812.  WAR  TAXES  POSTPONED.  549 

and  sailors  Congress  had  done  nothing,  or  next  to  nothing, 
when  war  began.  But  the  declaration  once  made,  the  business 
of  providing  means  to  carry  on  war  was  taken  up  in  ear- 
nest. "With  a  presidential  election  near  at  hand,  the  Repub- 
licans were  loath  to  restore  that  system  of  taxation  they  had 
swept  away  ten  years ,  before,  and  in  the  destruction  of  which 
they  had  so  long  and  so  loudly  gloried.  Gallatin  was  therefore 
appealed  to.  Could  he  not,  he  was  asked,  devise  some  way  of 
so  modifying  the  Non-importation  Law  that  it  would  yield  as 
much  revenue  as  could  be  raised  by  the  proposed  internal 
taxes,  tonnage  duty,  and  diminution  of  the  drawbacks  ?  He 
suggested  suspending  it  for  a  few  months,  and  doubling  the 
duties  on  imports.  The  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means  gladly 
seized  the  idea,  and  reported  bills  to  that  effect.  A  great 
struggle  followed.  If  the  Non-importation  Act  were  suspended 
at  that  moment  the  system  of  commercial  restrictions,  for  which 
Jefferson  and  Madison  had  so  long  contended,  was  abandoned, 
a  favorite  principle  of  the  old  Republicans  was  condemned, 
and  condemned  by  their  younger  followers.  For  this  the 
party  was  hardly  ready,  and  though  Calhoun  supported  the 
bill  in  a  splendid  speech,  though  the  Federalists  lent  all  the 
aid  they  could,  the  old  Republicans  won,  and  by  three  votes 
carried  a  motion  to  suspend  the  bill  indefinitely.  Defeat  by 
so  small  a  vote  served  but  to  encourage  the  Federalists,  who 
returned  to  the  attack ;  moved  to  appoint  a  committee  to  re- 
port a  bill  repealing  the  act,  and  divided  the  House  equally. 
It  was  now  for  Clay  to  give  the  casting  vote,  which  he  did  in 
the  negative.  On  the  following  day  bills  to  lay  war  taxes 
were  postponed  till  Congress  met  again.  To  supply  the  money 
which  must  be  had,  customs  duties  were  doubled,  and  five 
millions  of  treasury  notes  were  ordered  to  be  issued.  On  July 
sixth  Congress  adjourned. 

Never  before  had  a  Congress  sat  so  long  or  done  so  much. 
Republicans  hailed  it  accordingly  as  "  the  immortal  twelfth." 
But  Federalists,  when  they  recalled  the  Henry  letters  and  the 
declaration  of  war,  could  find  no  terms  strong  enough  to  ex- 
press their  condemnation. 

"Read,"  they  would  say,  "read  the  manifesto  carefully. 
And  when  you  have  read  it  go  and  ask  the  merchant,  the  in- 


550  MAKING  READY  FOR   WAR.  CHAP.  xxin. 

surer,  the  sailor,  the  ship-owner  if  one  of  the  unqualified  asser- 
tions is  true.  And  when  they  tell  you,  as  they  surely  will  tell 
you,  No,  then  ask  yourself  if  such  a  mass  of  falsehoods  war- 
rants a  naked  declaration  of  war.  You  are  told  that  the  voice 
of  the  people  is  for  war.  But  the  present  maladministrators 
of  affairs  will  find  before  the  year  ends  that  they  have  sadly 
mistaken  the  voice  of  the  people.  That  voice  is  not  for  war. 
It  is  loud  for  peace.  The  shouts  which  they  hear  is  the  clamor 
of  empty  heads,  of  unsound  hearts,  of  office-holders,  levellers, 
bawling  for  place.  The  war  hawks  tell  you  that  the  war  is 
one  for  the  redress  of  grievances.  It  is  nothing  of  the  kind. 
It  is  waged  in  the  hope  of  conquering  Canada,  of  forever  ruin- 
ing the  growing  commerce  of  New  England,  of  helping  Napo- 
leon in  his  attempt  to  break  in  pieces  the  empire  of  Great 
Britain.  You  are  basely  sold  to  the  tyrant  of  France.  You 
are  bound  and  covenanted  to  aid  him  in  all  his  wicked  schemes. 
Were  this  the  worst,  we  might,  perhaps,  endure  it.  We  might, 
perhaps,  bring  ourselves  to  behold  with  remorse  and  shame 
the  spectacle  of  the  republic  of  the  New  World  united  in  close 
union  with  the  destroyer  of  the  republics  of  the  Old  World. 
But  this  is  not  the  worst,  for  to  humiliation  must  soon  be  added 
ruin.  Our  enemy  is  the  greatest  maritime  power  that  has  ever 
been  on  earth,  and  to  her  we  offer  the  most  tempting  prizes. 
Our  merchantmen  are  on  every  sea.  Our  rich  cities  lie  along 
the  Atlantic  seaboard  close  to  the  water's  edge.  And  to  de- 
fend these  from  the  cruisers  of  Great  Britain  we  are  to  have 
an  army  of  raw  recruits  yet  to  be  raised  and  a  navy  of  gun- 
boats now  stranded  on  the  beaches  and  frigates  that  have  long 
been  rotting  in  the  slime  of  the  Potomac." 

In  New  England  the  news  was  received  in  many  places 
with  public  manifestations  of  grief.  Bells  were  tolled,  shops 
were  shut,  business  was  suspended,  and  in  some  of  the  seaports 
flags  on  the  embargoed  shipping  were  put  at  half-mast.  Ex- 
pecting a  violent  outburst  of  wrath,  the  Massachusetts  Senate 
endeavored  to  rouse  Republicans  by  a  strong  address  in  favor 
of  war. 

The  people  were  reminded  how,  in  a  time  of  profound 
peace,  when  no  disputes  over  territory  aroused  her  avarice, 
when  no  army  and  no  navy  awakened  her  jealousy,  when  every 


1812.  OPPOSITION  TO   WAR.  551 

merchant  seemed  intent  on  feeding  her  subjects  and  filling  her 
coffers  till  they  overflowed,  Great  Britain  had  wantonly  heaped 
untold  injuries  on  the  citizens  of  the  United  States.  How 
our  merchants  were  hunted  from  the  seas ;  how  their  property 
was  taken ;  how  their  ships  were  boarded ;  how  their  seamen 
were  dragged  into  bondage  of  the  most  cruel  kind.  How, 
eager  for  peace,  the  people  of  America  had  sought  it  with 
every  sacrifice.  How  they  had  borne  without  murmuring 
injuries  that  were  slight  and  had  remonstrated  only  against 
those  that  were  great;  how  they  forbore  till  forbearance 
became  shameful  and  then  quit  the  ocean  in  the  hope  that  a 
spirit  of  moderation  would  follow  the  spirit  of  violence  and 
rapine.  How  they  were  chased  to  their  very  shores  of  their 
country  and  outrages  done  them  in  the  waters  of  their  harbors 
and  bays.  How  spies  were  sent  into  their  cities  to  plot  with 
the  malcontents  for  the  overthrow  of  the  Government.  How 
the  savages  were  incited  to  take  up  the  tomahawk  and  fall 
upon  the  frontier  towns.  How,  driven  to  it,  the  constituted 
authorities  of  the  United  States  had  at  last  declared  war  for 
the  protection  of  commerce,  for  the  defence  of  the  citizens, 
for  the  preservation  of  our  republican  form  of  government. 

The  enemies  of  the  republic,  the  people  were  assured,  had 
seized  on  this  crisis  as  a  fitting  time  for  attempting  to  tear  the 
Union  apart.  This  was  made  plain  by  declarations  from  re- 
sponsible sources ;  by  intrigues  held  with  an  authorized  British 
spy ;  by  a  settled  determination  to  hinder  the  Government  in 
waging  the  war  forced  upon  it.  But  this  opposition,  it  was 
insisted,  must  now  stop.  The  duty  of  every  man  was  to  give  a 
warm  support  to  Government,  rally  under  committees  of  pub- 
he  safety  in  every  town,  district,  and  plantation,  and,  if  need 
be,  join  the  militia  and  be  ready  to  march  at  a  moment's 
notice  to  the  sea. 

The  people,  however,  were  determined  to  give  no  such 
support.  All  over  Massachusetts  town-meeting  after  town- 
meeting  was  held  to  denounce  the  war.  The  men  of  Salem 
had  framed  a  petition  to  Congress  begging  that  war  might  not 
be  declared,  and  were  on  the  point  of  sending  it  off  when  they 
heard  that  the  evil  they  so  much  dreaded  had  actually  come. 
They  now  threw  aside  the  petition  and  sent  a  strong  remon- 


552  MAKING  EEADY  FOR  WAR.  CHAP.  xxm. 

strance  to  the  General  Court.  Well  they  might  be  alarmed, 
for  eight  hundred  of  their  townsmen  were  on  the  sea.  New- 
bury  described  the  war  as  brought  on  the  country  by  French 
intrigue  and  as  offering  no  reasonable  hope  of  success.  New- 
buryport  used  language  stronger  still,  and  pronounced  the  war 
ruinous,  costly,  and  mad ;  the  death-blow  to  liberty,  the  last 
struggle  of  the  last  republic  under  the  sun.  Lancaster  was 
sure  the  war  could  bring  nothing  but  an  enormous  debt,  un- 
paralleled taxation,  and  the  giving  up  of  the  few  maritime 
rights  the  country  still  possessed.  Shrewsbury  would  not  only 
withhold  all  aid,  but  would  spare  no  pains  to  show  up  arid 
condemn  the  folly  of  the  measure.  From  Gloucester,  from 
Sterling,  from  Longmeadow,  came  resolutions  of  a  like  kind. 
At  Dedham  on  the  fourth  of  July  Jefferson  was  toasted  as 
Jeroboam,  the  son  of  Nebat,  who  made  Israel  to  walk  in  sin. 
Madison  was  Nadab,  the  son  of  Jeroboam,  who  walked  in  the 
way  of  his  father  and  in  his  sin.  The  ministers  almost  to  a 
man  were  against  the  war  and  suffered  no  Sabbath  to  pass  by 
without  a  sermon  on  its  iniquity.  The  text  of  one  was,  "  I 
am  for  peace  "  ;  another  preached  on  the  words,  "  With  good 
advice  make  war" ;  a  third  strove  to  answer  the  call,  "Watch- 
man, what  of  the  night  ? "  a  fourth  labored  hard  to  convince 
his  congregation  that  "  If  a  kingdom  be  divided  against  itself 
that  kingdom  cannot  stand."  When  the  day  set  apart  for 
fasting,  humiliation,  and  prayer  came,  the  denunciations  of  the 
ministers  were  stronger  than  ever,  and  their  sermons,  printed 
as  pamphlets,  were  scattered  by  thousands  over  the  country. 

And  now  between  the  great  parties,  the  Republicans  intent 
on  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war  and  the  Federalists  de- 
termined to  give  no  aid  or  countenance  to  the  war,  there  ap- 
peared a  third  party  which  assumed  the  name  of  Friends  of 
Commerce  and  of  Peace.  On  the  fourth  of  July,  while  the 
Federalists  of  Dedham  were  toasting  Jefferson  and  Madison  as 
Jeroboam  and  Nahob,  a  convention  of  the  Friends  of  Peace 
from  every  county  in  New  Jersey  rnet  at  Trenton,  framed  an 
address,  and  began  the  organization  of  the  party.  They  de- 
clared peace  to  be  most  necessary,  asserted  that  it  could  not  be 
secured  till  the  Republicans  were  driven  from  power,  and 
called  a  new  convention  to  meet  in  August  and  name  electors 


1812.  BALTIMORE  RIOTS.  553 

of  a  President  and  Yice-President  on  a  peace  ticket.  Two 
days  later  the  Friends  of  Peace  in  Pennsylvania  met  at  Car- 
lisle, drew  up  a  memorial  against  war  and  embargoes,  and  sent 
a  hundred  copies  through  the  State  for  signature.  In  Virginia 
a  few  Federalists  of  Fauquier  County  assembled  and  denounced 
the  war.  At  Baltimore  the  expression  of  such  opinion  was 
not  tolerated. 

There  was  at  that  time  published  at  Baltimore  a  newspaper 
called  the  Federal  Republican.  The  editor  in  chief  was 
Jacob  AVagner,  who  had  as  his  assistant  a  young  man  named 
Alexander  C.  Hanson.  "Wagner  had  served  as  chief  clerk  in 
the  State  Department  from  the  time  of  Pickering  to  the  time 
of  Madison,  and  was  a  Federalist  of  the  black  cockade  school. 
As  such  he  had  denounced  the  administration  and  the  war 
with  a  savage  bitterness  which  roused  the  deadly  hatred  of  the 
Democrats.  Long  before  the  war  was  declared  this  conduct  had 
called  forth  fierce  replies  in  the  newspapers,  and  had  led  num- 
bers of  distinguished  characters  to  say  that,  if  it  were  con- 
tinued after  war  was  declared,  the  Federal  Republican  should 
be  silenced.  The  denunciation  was  continued,  and  on  the 
evening  of  June  twentieth  a  well-organized  mob  destroyed  the 
type,  smashed  the  presses,  and  pulled  down  the  building  in 
which  the  Federal  Republican  was  printed.  Made  bold  by 
success,  the  mob  rose  again  the  next  night,  scoured  the  city  in 
search  of  men  whom  they  hated,  sacked  another  private  house, 
hurried  to  the  docks,  stripped  two  vessels  ready  for  sea,  burned 
the  house  of  a  free  negro,  and  were  about  to  fire  the  African 
church  when  they  were  scattered  by  a  troop  of  horse. 

On  the  night  the  mob  pulled  down  the  printing-house 
Hanson  was  not  in  Baltimore.  But  he  was  quickly  informed 
of  the  fact  by  John  Howard  Payne,  known  to  every  English- 
speaking  people  as  the  author  of  "  Home,  Sweet  Home."  He 
urged  Hanson  not  to  be  downed  by  the  mob,  but  to  go  on 
with  his  paper,  assert  that  liberty  of  the  press  of  which  every 
Republican  from  Jeiferson  down  to  the  lowest  demagogue  had 
prated  so  persistently,  and,  if  need  be,  defend  it  with  arms. 
After  many  consultations  with  their  friends,  the  editors  de- 
cided to  print  the  Federal  Republican  at  Georgetown,  where 
the  press  and  types  would  be  safe,  and  issue  it  from  the  house 


554:  MAKING  READY  FOR  WAR.  CHAP.  xxm. 

lately  occupied  by  Wagner  in  Baltimore.  Knovring  that  trou- 
ble would  follow,  the  building  was  at  once  turned  into  a  small 
fort.  Arms  were  gathered.  Food  was  laid  in.  Barricades 
were  made  ready  for  the  windows  and  doors,  and  a  garrison  of 
some  twenty  friends  collected.  In  command  were  two  old  sol- 
diers of  revolutionary  fame — General  James  Haccubin  Lingan 
and  "Light  Horse  Harry"  Lee.  On  July  twenty-seventh 
copies  of  the  paper  arrived  and  were  distributed.  That  night 
the  mob  rose  in  force,  pelted  the  house  with  stones,  beat  in  the 
door,  brought  up  a  cannon,  and  were  about  to  blow  the  build- 
ing to  pieces,  when  the  Mayor  and  the  commander  of  the 
militia  effected  a  compromise.  The  garrison  were  to  surren- 
der. The  mob  were  to  do  no  further  harm  to  life  or  prop- 
erty. The  terms  were  accepted.  The  prisoners  were  marched 
to  jail  and  the  house  instantly  gutted.  During  the  following 
night  the  jail  was  stormed.  Eight  of  the  prisoners  mingled 
with  the  mob  and  escaped  in  the  darkness.  Nine  were  taken, 
dragged  to  the  door,  where  a  butcher  beat  them  down  with  a 
club  and  flung  their  bodies  in  a  pile  at  the  foot  of  the  steps. 
The  crowd  now  fell  on  the  senseless  bodies,  beat  them  with 
clubs,  thrust  pen-knives  into  their  cheeks,  and  poured  candle- 
grease  into  their  eyes,  and  finally  gave  them  to  the  jail  doctor 
to  make  skeletons  of.  It  was  then  found  that  Lingan  was 
dead,  and  Lee  a  cripple  for  life.  Some  of  the  others  were 
hidden  in  hay-carts  and  sent  to  friends  out  of  town.  Others, 
too  badly  hurt  to  be  moved,  were  cared  for  at  the  jail  hospital.* 
Concerning  this  shameful  riot  at  Baltimore  the  Republican 
newspapers  had  little  to  say,  and  that  little  was  generally  praise. 
But  the  Federal  newspapers  had  much  to  say.  They  reminded 
their  readers  of  the  days  of  the  Sedition  Law ;  of  the  violence 
with  which  the  Republicans  then  cried  out  for  free  speech  and 
a  free  press ;  how  it  was  then  declared  to  be  the  duty  of  every 
patriot  to  watch  the  acts  of  the  servants  of  the  people,  and 

*  My  account  of  the  conduct  of  the  mob  is  taken  from  the  affidavits  of  the 
survivors  of  the  garrison.  True  American,  August  18,  19,  1812.  Report  of  the 
Joint  Committee  of  both  branches  of  the  City  Council  to  the  Mayor  of  Baltimore. 
Aurora,  August  11,  1812;  also,  Testimony  taken  before  the  Committee  of  Griev- 
ances and  Courts  of  Justice,  relative  to  the  late  Riots  and  Mobs  in  the  City  of 
Baltimore. 


1812.  BALTIMORE  MOBS.  555 

condemn  in  unmeasured  terms  such  as  were  bad ;  and  asked 
why  in  the  face  of  such  a  record  Republicans  could  rejoice  in 
the  destruction  of  a  press  at  Baltimore.  They  filled  their 
columns  with  all  the  details  of  the  riot,  they  nicknamed  Balti- 
more Mobtown,  and  foolishly  and  unjustly  laid  all  the  blame 
on  the  administration.  In  Philadelphia  an  account  of  the 
riot  was  printed  as  a  hand-bill,  and,  headed  by  the  words 
"  Madison's  Mob,"  was  spread  over  the  city.  The  Republicans 
retorted  with  a  long  list  of  Federal  misdeeds.  Who,  it  was 
asked,  were  the  men  that  insulted  Congressman  Widgery  on 
the  exchange  at  Boston  ?  Who  stoned  the  house  of  Benj?i- 
min  Austin  in  the  same  town  ?  Who  hustled  Judge  Turner 
through  the  streets  of  Plymouth  ?  Who  sank  a  privateer  at 
Providence,  attacked  the  United  States  recruiting  officers  at 
Litchfield,  mobbed  a  deputy  marshal  at  Milford,  burnt  a  ship 
in  the  custody  of  the  United  States  at  New  Haven,  and  cried 
out  for  the  sinking  of  all  privateers  ?  What  was  the  politics 
of  the  newspaper  that  graced  its  columns  with  crow-bars  and 
ploughshares  in  battle  array,  and  under  them  put  the  words : 
"  To  tell  you  the  truth,  Southern  brethren,  we  do  not  intend  to 
live  another  year  under  the  present  national  administration." 

As  time  went  on,  the  Republicans  discovered  that  some- 
thing more  than  a  riot  had  happened.  All  over  the  country 
decent  people  of  both  parties  were  alarmed.  The  freedom  of 
the  press  had  been  attacked.  Was  this  the  first  step,  it  was 
asked,  to  a  state  of  affairs  very  much  like  the  reign  of  terror  in 
France  ?  In  New  England  such  feeling  found  general  expres- 
sion. At  a  great  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall  the  people  of  Boston 
adopted  resolutions  strongly  condemning  mobs  and  mob  vio- 
lence, expressed  the  belief  that  the  outrages  at  Baltimore  were 
of  French  origin,  and  the  first  fruit  of  the  unnatural  and 
dreadful  alliance  into  which  the  country  had  entered  in  fact 
if  not  in  form.*  The  members  of  the  Leonidas  Fire  Society 
of  Newburyport  declared  that  the  press  should  stand  or  they 
fall,  and  that  in  the  late  proceedings  at  Baltimore  they  beheld 
another  proof  of  the  strange  nature  of  Democratic  fire.f  The 

*  August   6,  1812.     New  England  Palladium,  August  17.     True  American, 
August  11,  1812. 

f  True  American,  August  1 7 ;  Newburyport  Herald. 


556  MAKING  READY  FOR  WAR.  CHAP.  xxm. 

Newburyport  Herald  collected  and  published  those  passages 
of  the  various  State  constitutions  in  which  it  is  asserted  that 
the  liberty  of  the  press  must  be  inviolably  preserved.  The 
people  of  Georgetown  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  action 
of  the  mob  surpassed  in  atrocity  the  cruel  murder  of  the  Ger- 
man printer  Palm  by  the  despots  of  France.*  By  this  time 
the  war  had  opened  seriously  and  disastrously  in  the  far 
Northwest. 

Keeping  the  nature  of  the  country  in  view,  General  Dear- 
born drew  a  plan  for  an  offensive  campaign,  and  sent  it  to  the 
Secretary  of  War  as  early  as  the  middle  of  May.  A  main 
army  was  to  move  on  Montreal  by  the  road  that  skirted  Cham- 
plain,  while  three  corps  of  militia  were  to  hurry  into  Canada 
from  Sackett's  Harbor,  from  Niagara,  and  from  Detroit.  The 
plan  seemed  a  good  one,  was  approved,  and  in  time  the  officers 
were  chosen  to  carry  it  out.  Commander  Thomas  Macdonough 
was  ordered  to  Lake  Champlain.  Captain  Isaac  Chauncey 
was  given  command  of  the  vessels  on  Lake  Ontario.  Dear- 
born was  sent  to  Albany  to  make  ready  the  expedition  against 
Montreal.  Hull  had  already  been  chosen  to  defend  Detroit. 

Fear  of  Tecumthe,  the  hostility  of  the  Indians,  the  border 
raids  and  murders  of  a  year  past,  had  so  alarmed  the  people  of 
Michigan  that  they  called  on  the  Government  to  defend  them. 
The  call  was  heard,  and  the  Governor  of  Ohio  was  asked  to 
detach  three  regiments  of  militia  and  a  troop  of  dragoons  and 
assemble  them  at  Dayton,  whence  they  were  to  be  marched  to 
Detroit.  The  Fourth  Regiment  of  United  States  Infantry  was 
next  ordered  to  join  the  militia  at  Urbana.  Happening  just 
then  to  be  at  Washington,  Hull  was  urged  to  take  command. 
At  first  he  refused,  but  at  last  consented,  was  given  the  rank 
of  brigadier-general,  and  on  May  twenty-fifth  joined  the  troops 
at  Dayton. 

The  condition  of  the  militia  there  gathered  would  have 
disheartened  a  general  who  had  not  commanded  the  half-clad, 
half-fed,  half-armed  soldiers  of  the  Revolution.  Some  had 
scarcely  a  suit  of  clothes.  Only  a  few  had  a  blanket  apiece. 
The  leather  of  the  cartouch-boxes  was  rotten  from  old  age ; 

*  True  American;  August  14,  1812. 


1812.  HULL'S  MARCH  TO  DETROIT.  557 

the  arms  were  utterly  unfit  for  use ;  there  was  no  powder  save 
what  the  men  had  brought  themselves.  But  Hull  was  not  dis- 
heartened and,  for  the  last  time  in  his  military  career,  made  a 
show  of  energy.  Powder  was  brought  from  the  mills  in  Ken- 
tucky. A  few  score  of  blankets  were  given  by  the  people  of 
Ohio,  and  when  the  guns  and  muskets  had  been  mended  by 
the  smiths  of  Dayton  and  Cincinnati  the  little  army  set  out  for 
Detroit. 

As  the  troops  pushed  slowly  across  the  wilderness,  putting 
up  block-houses,  building  rude  bridges  over  the  streams  and 
clumsy  roads  across  the  swamps,  a  letter  from  Washington 
made  known  to  Hull  that  war  would  soon  be  declared,  and 
bade  him  hurry  on  to  Detroit  and  wait  for  further  orders. 
The  letter  reached  him  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  June,  when  he 
was  still  some  seventy-five  miles  from  Detroit.  Leaving  his 
heavy  camp  equipage  where  he  was,  he  marched  the  army 
with  all  the  speed  he  could  to  the  Maumee  river,  and  near  the 
present  site  of  Toledo  loaded  his  hospital  stores,  his  intrench- 
ing tools,  his  personal  baggage,  nay,  even  a  trunk  containing 
his  instructions  and  his  muster-rolls  on  board  of  a  schooner, 
sent  it  up  the  lake,  and  pushed  on  rapidly  for  Detroit.  He 
had  every  reason  to  expect  that  Eustis  would  see  to  it  that 
news  of  war  reach  him  long  before  it  did  the  British.  But  he 
was  mistaken,  and  twenty-four  hours  later  the  schooner  was 
captured  as  she  passed  by  Fort  Maiden.  The  British  officers 
knew  of  the  declaration  of  war  on  June  thirtieth.  Hull,  how- 
ever, knew  nothing  of  it  till  July  second,  when  he  was  at 
Frenchtown  on  the  river  Raisin.  Three  days  sufficed  to  tra- 
verse the  forty  miles  that  lay  between  Frenchtown  and  Detroit, 
where  on  the  ninth  a  second  letter  gave  him  leave  to  take  the 
offensive,  and,  if  he  felt  able,  cross  the  strait  and  march  against 
Fort  Maiden.  This  was  just  what  officers  and  men  had  been 
clamoring  for  ever  since  they  reached  Detroit ;  and,  now  that 
authority  had  come  to  do  it,  Hull  gave  way.  Boats  were  gath- 
ered as  quickly  as  possible,  and  at  dawn  on  the  twelfth  he 
crossed  the  river  and  took  up  his  headquarters  at  Sandwich,  a 
little  village  on  the  Canadian  side,  three  miles  below  Detroit. 

Before  him  lay  the  province  of  Upper  Canada,  stretching 
along  our  frontier  from  Detroit  to  the  Ottawa  river,  and  con- 


558  MAKING  READY  FOR  WAR.  CHAP.  xxra. 

taming  perhaps  seventy-five  thousand  souls.  York,  or,  as  we 
now  know  it,  Toronto,  far  away  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Ontario, 
was  the  capital.  Sir  George  Prevost  was  Governor-General, 
and  Brigadier-General  Isaac  Brock  military  commander.  Of 
all  the  men  in  command  on  either  side  of  the  boundary  line, 
Brock  was  by  far  the  ablest.  Nothing  which,  in  such  an 
emergency,  could  tend  to  discourage  him  was  wanting.  His 
troops  were  few  and  scattered.  His  people  sympathized 
strongly  with  the  Americans.  His  Legislature  would  not  give 
him  even  a  half-hearted  support.  Yet  he  overcame  all  by 
energy,  by  decision,  by  the  good  use  he  made  of  the  time 
wasted  by  his  enemy. 

In  the  presence  of  such  a  man  but  one  course  was  open  to 
Hull,  and  that  was  to  go  with  all  the  speed  he  could  to  Fort 
Maiden  and  carry  it  by  storm,  for  it  defended  Amherstburgh 
and  commanded  the  channel  through  which  all  ships  must  pass 
on  their  way  from  Lake  Erie  to  Detroit.  But  he  sat  still  at 
Sandwich,  intrenched  his  camp,  and  issued  a  proclamation  to 
the  people  of  Canada.  Lewis  Cass,  who  commanded  a  regi- 
ment of  militia,  wrote  it,  and  for  bombast,  for  idle  threaten- 
ing, for  vainglory,  it  is  equalled,  and  only  equalled,  by  the  later 
proclamations  of  Porter  and  Smyth.  Deluded  by  its  bluster- 
ing threats  and  gracious  promises,  a  few  militia  deserted  at 
Maiden,  and  a  few  farmers,  three  hundred  and  sixty-seven  in 
all,  came  to  the  camp  at  Sandwich.  Deluded  in  turn  by  these, 
Hull  waited  in  hope  that  more  would  follow,  and  this  wait- 
ing proved  his  ruin.  Brock  was  all  activity.  Troops  were 
hurried  toward  Maiden.  The  Indians  were  aroused.  The 
fears  of  the  people  were  allayed  by  a  proclamation  replying 
to  that  of  Hull.  The  refractory  legislators  were  sent  home. 
Orders  were  despatched  to  the  commander  on  the  island  of  St. 
Joseph  to  seize  the  fort  at  Michilimackinaw,  and  Brock  him- 
self took  the  field. 

Hull  meanwhile  was  feeling  the  effects  of  his  sloth  and  of 
Brock's  energy.  No  more  Canadians  came  to  his  camp.  Every 
day  something  happened  to  make  his  situation  more  desperate 
and  himself  more  faint-hearted.  The  Indians  cut  off  his  com- 
munications with  Ohio.  The  British  garrison  was  strength- 
ened ;  his  officers  grew  insolent ;  his  troops  grew  unruly. 


1812.  SURRENDER  OF  DETROIT.  559 

Michilimackinaw  surrendered,  and  he  heard  that  the  victors 
would  soon  be  down  on  him  from  the  Northwest.  Letters 
from  the  officer  who  commanded  the  American  troops  on 
Niagara  river,  and  from  General  Porter,  who  held  the  post 
at  Black  Rock,  informed  him  that  boats  crowded  with  English 
soldiers  had  crossed  Lake  Ontario,  and  that  the  troops  were 
hurrying  on"  toward  Maiden.  The  "Wyandots  dug  up  the 
hatchet,  and  Hull,  fearing  for  the  safety  of  his  base,  recrossed 
the  river  and  fell  back  to  Detroit.  There,  without  the  small- 
est show  of  resistance,  without  so  much  as  firing  a  gun,  he 
surrendered,  on  the  fifteenth  of  August,  1812.  The  first  re- 
ports of  the  disaster  at  Detroit  were  scouted  by  the  Repub- 
licans as  Federal  tricks.  One  journal  plainly  called  them 
Federal  lies.  The  Aurora  declared  they  "  must  be  put  upon 
the  shelf  of  imposition."  But  the  post  riders  soon  brought  in 
hand-bills  from  Albany  and  Pittsburg  so  full  of  details  as  to 
leave  no  doubt.  Then  the  outcry  against  Hull  became  savage. 
The  administration,  which  was  alone  to  blame,  gave  him  up 
to  popular  vengeance,  and,  on  charges  of  treason,  of  cowardice, 
of  neglect  of  duty  and  unofficerlike  conduct,  he  was  tried  by 
court-martial.  The  court  convicted  him  of  cowardice  and 
sentenced  him  to  be  shot.  But  Madison  most  mercifully  gave 
him  his  life,  and,  dismissed  from  the  army,  he  spent  the  rest  of 
his  days  in  explaining  the  surrender  and  seeking  to  persuade 
his  countrymen  that  he  had  been  harshly  and  unjustly  used. 

He  was  indeed  a  harshly  used  man.  Not  he,  but  Madi- 
son, Eustis,  and  Dearborn  were  to  blame.  Had  the  adminis- 
tration carried  out  the  plan  of  attack,  had  Canada  been  vigor- 
ously invaded  at  the  same  moment  from  Detroit,  from  Niaga- 
ra, from  Sackett's  Harbor,  and  from  about  Cham  plain,  Brock 
could  not  have  concentrated  his  forces  about  Maiden  and  Hull 
would  not  have  been  captured  at  Detroit.  Eustis,  it  is  true, 
had  three  times  *  written  to  Dearborn,  then  at  Albany  collect- 
ing troops  and  supplies  for  a  northern  campaign,  urging  and 
entreating  him  to  attack  from  the  Niagara  frontier.  But 
Dearborn  was  slow,  and  August  came  before  he  sent  a  detach- 

*  Eustis  to  Dearborn,  July  20,  July  26,  and  August  1,  1812.     Defence  of 
Dearborn,  p.  4. 


560  MAKING  READY  FOE   WAR.  CHAP.  xxm. 

ment  of  one  thousand  men  westward,  and  invited  Stephen  Yan 
Rensselaer,  a  Major-General  of  the  New  York  militia,  to  take 
command.  Then  it  was  too  late ;  Brock  was  already  in  the 
field  and  Hull  about  to  flee  from  Canada.  That  nothing 
might  be  wanting  to  make  the  unfortunate  general's  lot  a  hard 
one,  an  armistice  was  concluded  between  Dearborn  and  Pre- 
vost  twenty-four  hours  after  Hull  reached  Detroit. 


ETOEX  TO  YOL.  III. 


ERRATA. 

Pages  32  and  76.— For  Stoddart,  read  Stoddert. 
Page  39. — For  Edward,  read  Robert  E.  Livingston. 

"    50,  line  4. — For  took  place,  read  transpired. 

"    72. — For  Dupiester,  read  De  Pestre. 

<•    76. — For  eighth,  read  ninth  Congress. 

"    81. — For  Carey,  read  Gary. 

"  128,  line  13. — For  examine,  read  to  examine. 

"  296.— For  Michilimackinac,  read  Michilimackinaw. 

"  319. — For  Crittenden,  read  CMttenden. 

"  339. — For  Eustice,  read  Eustis. 

"  451.— For  John  Milnor,  read  James  Milnor. 


laying  out  the  Cumberland  Koad,  469 ; 
of  March  3, 1807,  continuing  the  Medi- 
terranean Fund,  214;  of  March  3, 1807, 
settlement  of  land  claims  in  Michigan. 
142;  of  March  3,  1807,  granting  land 
to  Lewis  and  Clarke,  142 ;  of  February, 
10, 1807,  establishing  a  coast  survey,  467 ; 
of  March  2,  1807,  prohibiting;  the  im- 
portation of  slaves,  520, 521 ;  December 
22, 1807,laying  an  embargo,  276-278, 280, 
281 ;  January  8, 1808,  supplementary  to 
embargo,  281 ;  of  March  12, 1808,  supple- 
mentary to  embargo,  295,  296 ;  of  April 
22,  1808,  authorizing  the  suspension 
of  the  embargo  under  certain  condi- 
tions, 297,  298 ;  of  December  18,  1807, 
providing  for  building,  gun  -  boats, 
299 ;  of  January  8, 1808 ;  appropriating 
$1,000,000  for  defence  of  harbors,  299 ; 
of  January  17,  1808,  continuing  the 

vox,,  in. — 37 


436,  437  ;  of  February  6, 1812,  to  accept 
volunteers,  438  ;  of  March  14, 1812,  au- 
thorizing a  loan  of  $11,000,000,  442 ;  of 
Ajpril  4, 1812,  laying  an  embargo,  450 ; 
of  April  8,  1812,  admitting  Louisiana 
into  the  Union  as  a  State,  378  ;  of  April 
14, 1812,  annexing  a  part  of  Florida  to 
Louisiana,  540 ;  of  May  14, 1812,  annex- 
ing part  of  Florida  to  Mississippi  Ter- 
ritory, 540 ;  of  June  18, 1812,  declaring 
war,  457. 

Adair.  John,  Senator  from  Kentucky.  A 
confederate  of  Burr,  63 ;  later  career, 
87. 

Adams,  John  Quincy.  Proposes  to 
amend  the  Federal  Constitution ; 
frames  the  Boston  resolutions  on  Chesa- 
peake affair,  262 ;  sketch  of,  287-289; 
not  returned  to  United  States  Senate, 
289;  resigns,  289;  motion  for  a  plan 


560  MAKING  READY  FOE   WAR.  CHAP.  xxm. 

inent  of  one  thousand  men  westward,  and  invited  Stephen  Yan 
Rensselaer,  a  Major-General  of  the  New  York  militia,  to  take 
command.  Then  it  was  too  late ;  Brock  was  already  in  the 
field  and  Hull  about  to  flee  from  Canada.  That  nothing 
might  be  wanting  to  make  the  unfortunate  general's  lot  a  hard 
one,  an  armistice  was  concluded  between  Dearborn  and  Pre- 
vost  twenty-four  hours  after  Hull  reached  Detroit. 


INDEX  TO  VOL.  III. 


Abogado,  20. 

Abolition  of  slavery.  Early  effort  to- 
ward, 514,  515. 

Acte  of  the  territorial  Legislature  of  In- 
diana permitting  the  introduction  of 
slaves,  524-527. 

Acts  of  Congress.  March  3, 1803,  appro- 
priating money  for  roads  in  Ohio,  136, 
469  ;  October  31, 1803.  to  take  possession 
of  Louisiana,  10 ;  of  February  24, 1804, 
for  collecting  duties  in  the  territory 
ceded  to  the  United  States  (Mobile 
Act),  31 :  of  March  25,  1804,  to  estab- 
lish the  Mediterranean  Fund,  203,  204 ; 
of  March  26,  1804,  for  the  temporary 

fovernment  of  Louisiana,  23-26 ;  March 
,  1805,  to  provide  further  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  Orleans,  30;  of  March  3, 
1805,  for  the  more  effectual  preserva- 
tion of  peace  in  the  ports  and  harbors 
of  the  United  States,  247 ;  of  March  3, 
1805,  regulating  trade  with  San  Do- 
mingo, 218  ;  of  February  13, 1806. "  The 
Two  Million  "  Act,  215 ;  of  February 
28,  1806,  stopping  trade  with  San  Do- 
mingo, 219  ;  of  April  18,  1806,  prohib- 
iting the  importation  of  certain  goods 
from  England,  236 ;  March  29, 1806,  for 
laying  out  the  Cumberland  Koad,  469 ; 
of  March  3,1807,  continuing  the  Medi- 
terranean Fund,  214;  of  March  3.  1807, 
settlement  of  land  claims  in  Michigan, 
142  •  of  March  3,  1807,  granting  land 
to  Lewis  and  Clarke,  142 ;  of  February, 
10, 1807,  establishing  a  coast  survey,  467 ; 
of  March  2,  1807,  prohibiting;  the  im- 
portation of  slaves,  520, 521 ;  December 
22, 1807,laying  an  embargo,  276-278, 280, 
281;  January  8, 1808,  supplementary  to 
embargo,  281 ;  of  March  12, 1808,  supple- 
mentary to  embargo,  295,  296 ;  of  April 
22,  1808,  authorizing  the  suspension 
of  the  embargo  under  certain  condi- 
tions, 297,  298 ;  of  December  18,  1807, 
providing  for  building,  gun  -  boats, 
299 ;  of  January  8, 1808 ;  appropriating 
$1,000,000  for  defence  of  harbors,  299 ; 
of  January  17,  1808,  continuing  the 

VOL.  in. — 37 


Mediterranean  Fund,  299;  of  March 
11,  1808,  for  purchase  of  arms,  etc., 
299;  of  March  30,  1808,  for  the  de- 
tachment of  State  militia,  299 ;  of  April 
2,  1808,  for  the  sale  of  arms  to  the 
States,  299 ;  of  April  12, 1808,  for  in- 
crease of  the  regular  army,  299;  of 
April  19,  1808,  for  preservation  of 
peace  in  the  harbors  of  the  United 
States,  299 ;  of  January  9, 1809,  to  en- 
force the  embargo,  325;  of  March  1, 
1809,  to  interdict  commercial  inter- 
course between  the  United  States, 
Great  Britain,  and  France,  333-336 ;  of 
January  30,1809,  calling  an  exjFarsession 
in  May,  336 ;  of  June  2JV4£09,restoring 
intercourse  with,-^feat  Britain,  346; 
of  March  1,-WrO,  concerning  commer- 
cial intercourse  between  the  United 
States,  Great  Britain,  and  France,  357- 
361 ;  of  January  15,  1811,  authorizing 
the  occupation  of  East  Florida,  374, 
375 ;  of  February  20, 1811,  authorizing 
the  people  of  Orleans  to  form  a  State 
Constitution,  375-379 ;  of  March  2, 1811, 
reviving  non-intercourse  with  Great 
Britain,  391-394,  395-397 ;  of  January 
11, 1812,  to  raise  an  army  of  25,000  men, 
436,  437 ;  of  February  6, 1812,  to  accept 
volunteers,  438  ;  of  March  14, 1812,  au- 
thorizing a  loan  of  $11,000,000,  442 ;  of 
April  4, 1812,  laying  an  embargo,  450; 
of  April  8,  1812,  admitting  Louisiana 
into  the  Union  as  a  State,  378  ;  of  April 
14, 1812,  annexing  a  part  of  Florida  to 
Louisiana,  540 ;  of  May  14, 1812,  annex- 
ing part  of  Florida  to  Mississippi  Ter- 
ritory, 540 ;  of  June  18, 1812,  declaring 
war,  457. 

Adair,  John,  Senator  from  Kentucky.  A 
confederate  of  Burr,  63 ;  later  career, 
87. 

Adams,  John  Quincy.  Proposes  to 
amend  the  Federal  Constitution ; 
frames  the  Boston  resolutions  on  Chesa- 
peake affair.  262:  sketch  of,  287-289; 
not  returned  to  United  States  Senate, 
289;  resigns,  289;  motion  for  a  plan 


562 


INDEX. 


for  internal  improvements  at  Govern- 
ment expense,  473. 

Addison,  Alexander,  Judge.  Sketch  of, 
154-156 ;  quarrel  with  Judge  Lucas, 
150  ;  impeached  and  removed,  157. 

Admiralty  decisions.  Case  of  the  Polly, 
223 ;  Mercury,  223 ;  the  Essex,  Enoch, 
Kowena,  226 ;  effect  of,  in  United  States, 
227,  228. 

Alabama  Indians,  535,  536. 

Alburg,  305. 

Alcaldes,  19. 

Alcalde,  Provincial,  19,  20. 

Alcalde  de  Barios,  20. 

Alferez,  Royal,  19. 

Alfred.  Resolutions  on  the  Force  Act, 
328. 

Alguazil,  Mayor,  19. 

Alston,  Willis,  Jr.  On  war  with  Eng- 
land, 320. 

Amelia  Island.  A  nest  of  smugglers, 
537;  taken  by  the  rebels,  538,  539; 
given  up  to  the  United  States,  539 ; 
English  vessels  seized  at,  540. 

Amendments  to  the  Federal  Constitution. 
Jefferson  desires  one  providing  for  the 
admission  of  Louisiana,  1-3 ;  Massa- 
chusetts proposes  one  limiting  repre- 
sentation to  freemen,  44,  45;  answers 
of  the  Statesj  46,  47 ;  Randolph  pro- 
poses one  to  give  the  President  power  to 
remove  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
182;  Nicholson  proposes  one  giving 
the  States  power  to  recall  Senators, 
182;  the  twelfth  amendment,  183-186  ; 
ratified,  187 ;  North  Carolina  asks  for 
one  giving  Congress  power  to  pro- 
hibit the  importation  of  slaves,  517, 
518 ;  moved  by  Massachusetts,  518 ; 
answers  of  the  States,  518. 

American  Philosophical  Society,  142. 

Amusements  in  New  Orleans,  18. 

Architecture  of  New  Orleans,  18. 

Argus,  The,  202,  206,  207. 

Arkansas  River.  Sources  of,  explored  by 
Pike,  144, 145. 

Armistice  concluded  by  Dearborn  and 
Prevost,  560. 

Armstrong,  John.  Minister  to  France,  89 ; 
carries  Monroe's  letter  to  Talleyrand, 
39 ;  answer  of  Talleyrand,  209 ;  advises 
seizure  of  Texas,  209 ;  invites  Napoleon 
to  arbitrate  on  Louisiana  boundary,  211, 
212 ;  demands  that  American  ships  be 
exempt  from  Berlin  decree,  270,  271 ; 
asffiyer  of  Napoleon,  271 ;  lays  Non- 
imcrcourse  Act  before  Napoleon,  363 ; 
answer  of  Napoleon,  363, 864 ;  instructed 
to  ask  Napoleon  for  conditions,  364; 
protest  against  seizure  of  American 
ships,  366;  lectured  by  Champagny, 
866, 367 ;  receives  Rambouillet  decree, 
867 ;  sends  copy  of  Macon  Act  to  Cham- 
pagny, 367, 368 ;  notified  of  future  re- 
peal of  decrees  of  Berlin  and  Milan, 
368 ;  sends  word  to  Pinkney,  368. 

Army.  Debate  on  the  bills  to  increase 
the  regular,  432—438 ;  number  of  regi- 
ments, 542,  543;  enlistments,  543; 


bounty,  543;  militia  not  detached  in 
Connecticut,  544;  nor  in  Massachu- 
setts, 545 ;  nor  in  Rhode  Island,  546 ; 
new  generals,  546,  547. 

Articles  of  confederation,  The  eighth  91 ; 
ratification  of,  93 ;  refusal  of  Maryland, 
93. 

Asia.  The  ship,  burned  by  the  French, 
449. 

Astoria,  542. 

Auction.    Sale  of  land  at,  105. 

Aurora.    The  case  of  ship,  247. 

Baggage.  Amount  allowed  by  the  stage 
companies,  492,  note. 

Bainbridge,  William.  Commands  the 
Philadelphia,  202 ;  is  captured  off  Trip- 
oli, 202,  203. 

Bakers  of  New  York  refused  leave  to  im- 
port flour,  303. 

Ballads  on  the  embargo,  324,  325. 

Ballot.  Separate,  for  Vice-President,  183- 
187 ;  printed  law  regarding,  in  Massa- 
chusetts, 197. 

Baltimore.  Rage  for  American  manu- 
factures, 500 ;  manufacturers  parade 
at,  502 ;  mob  destroys  office  of  Federal 
Republican,  553-556 ;  strike  of  tailors 
in,  511,  512-513. 

Bank  of  the  United  States.  Enemies  of, 
379 ;  charges  against,  381 ;  friends  of, 
381,  382  ;  memorial  for  recharter,  384 ; 
substance  of  petitions  for  recharter, 
884,  385 ;  bill  reported,  385, 386 ;  Clay's 
speech  against,  386-388;  speech  of 
Crawford  for  recharter,  388, 389 ;  reso- 
lutions of  Virginia,  388 ;  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, 888  and  note ;  charter  refused,  390 ; 
bank  goes  out  of  business,  390,  note; 
banks,  numbers  of,  in  United  States, 
380,  381. 

Barlow,  Joel.  Appointed  Minister  to 
France,  184  ;  ordered  to  depart,  411. 

Baring,  Sir  Francis,  320. 

Barron,  James.  Sent  to  Barbary  Coast, 
204;  relieved,  207;  reports  on  enlist- 
ment of  British  deserters,  255;  com- 
mands the  Chesapeake,  257 ;  surrender 
to  the  Leopard,  258. 

Bastrop,  Grant.  Burr's  connection  with, 
65  and  note. 

Bassano,  Due  de.  Receives  Non-inter- 
course Act  from  Russell,  409 ;  answers 
Russell,  409. 

Bath.    Opposition  to  Force  Act,  827. 

Baton  Rouge.  Spanish  troops  at,  210 ; 
rebellion  in,  against  Spain,  370-373. 

Bayard,  James  A.,  450. 

Bayonne.  Decree  of,  April  17, 1808, 309, 
310 ;  American  ships  seized  under,  310 ; 
protest  of  Armstrong,  311;  ships  set 
free,  312 ;  Napoleon  at,  310 ;  crowns  his 
brother  King  of  Spain  at,  312. 

Bayou  Pierre.    Burr  at,  73. 

Beacon  Hill.    Railway  on,  494. 

Bee,  Thomas.    District  Judge,  302. 

Berkeley,  George  Cranfleld,  Vice- Admi- 
ral of  the  White.  His  order  regarding 
Chesapeake,  256,  257,  and  note;  sent 


INDEX. 


563 


by  Leopard  to  Chesapeake  Bay,  257 ; 
demana  for  his  recall,  269 ;  Eose's  in- 
structions regarding,  281,  282;  Ers- 
kine's  instructions,  340,  341. 

Berlin.  The  decree  of,  249,  250;  effect 
of,  on  treaty  with  England,  250,  251 ; 
enforced  by  Spain,  270 ;  Armstrong 
asks  for  interpretation  of,  270,  271 ;  en- 
forced in  the  Horizon  case,  271,  272; 
England  retaliates  with  orders  in 
council  of  November,  1807,  272-274. 

Bibliography  of  Ordinance,  1787.  Of 
neutral  trade,  235,  note;  of  Chesa- 
peake affair,  264,  note. 

Berthier.  Seizes  United  States  ships  in 
Spain,  366. 

Bidwell,  Barnebas.  Explains  wishes  of 
Jefferson  in  regard  to  Florida,  213. 

Bibb,  William,  299. 

Bingham,  captain  of  Little  Belt,  454. 

Bishop,  Abraham.  Speech  at  Hartford. 
Demands  a  Constitution  for  Connecti- 
cut. 190, 191. 

Bissell,  Daniel,  Captain  of  First  Infantry. 
Welcomes  Burr  at  Fort  Massoc,  73. 

Blennerhasset,  Harman,  56,  57  5  meets 
Burr,  57 ;  Burr  enlists  him  in  his  plans, 
64 ;  writes  the  "  Querist,"  64,  65 ;  flees 
from  Ohio,  72 ;  meets  Burr  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Cumberland,  72 ;  at  Eichmond, 
81;  indicted,  83;  committed  for  trial 
in  Ohio,  86;  fails  to  appear,  86;  later 
career,  87. 

Bland,  Theodorick.  Plan  for  the  use  of 
the  Western  lands,  98,  99. 

Blockades,  220,  223 :  British  blockade  of 
Martinique  and  Guadeloupe,  226,  245 ; 
of  French  and  German  coast,  May  16, 
1806,  248;  Pinkney  asks  if  still  in 
force,  364 ;  Wellesley's  answer,  364, 365 ; 
express  withdrawal  of,  demanded,  368 ; 
order  in  council  of  November  21, 1806, 
249 ;  of  all  ports  and  places  under  the 
Government  of  France,  April  26, 1809, 
347 ;  repeal  of,  demanded  by  Pinkney, 
368 ;  French,  of  Great  Britain,  see  De- 
cree of  Berlin  ;  of  New  York  Harbor 
in  1803,  246 ;  in  1807,  253 ;  of  Chesa- 
peake Bay,  1807,  253. 

Bloomfleld,  Joseph.  Made  Brigadier- 
General,  547. 

Blount,  William.  Governor  of  territory 
south  of  Ohio,  117. 

Boatmen,  Wages  of,  510. 

Board  of  Treasury.  To  sell  Western 
lands,  104-107 ;  to  report  a  plan  for 
selling,  109, 116. 

Bollmann,  Julius  Erich.  Confederate  of 
Burr,  63 ;  arrested  at  New  Orleans,  74 ; 
sent  north  by  sea,  74 ;  reaches  Washing- 
ton and  is  arrested,  78 ;  set  free,  79 ;  la- 
ter career,  87. 

Boyle,  John,  177. 

Bonaparte,  Joseph.     Crowned  King  of 

Spain,  312. 

Boston.  Dinner  to  King,  197;  attempt 
to  use  printed  ballot,  197 ;  Chesapeake 
resolutions.  261,  262 ;  effects  of  embar- 
go, 289 ;  efforts  for  repeal  of  embargo, 


312;  answers  of  the  towns,  812,  313  ; 
first  anniversary  of  embargo,  323 ; 
deputy  collector  refuses  to  execute  Force 
Act  and  resigns,  329 ;  scenes  on  the  re- 
ception of  the  news  of  embargo  of 
1812,  452. 

Bounty^.  Land  bounty  promised  by  the 
Continental  Congress,  89 ;  petition  of 
the  soldiers,  99 ;  to  encourage  manu- 
factures, 500,  501,  502,  503,  504 ;  offered 
at  opening  of  war  in  1812,  543. 

Boundary.  The  Indian,  118;  of  the 
Louisiana  purchase  not  defined,  14; 
American  claims,  14,  31 ;  origin  of  the 
claim?  32-34 ;  negotiations  regarding,  in 
Madrid,  36—11 ;  considered  by  Jefferson 
and  the  Cabinet,  209,  211. 

Bowdoin,  James.  Succeeds  Pinckney  at 
Madrid.  41. 

Brackenridge,  H.  H.,  156, 157, 159. 

Bradley,  Stephen  Koe,  175;  calls  the 
congressional  caucus  of  1804, 187 ;  calls 
the  caucus  in  1808,  314;  revolt  against 
caucus,  314-316. 

Brent,  Eichard,  Senator  from  Virginia. 
Eefuses  to  vote  against  recharter  of 
bank,  390 ;  denies  the  right  of  instruc- 
tion, 390;  is  condemned  by  Virginia, 
390 ;  asked  to  persuade  Monroe  to  take 
the  office  of  Secretary  of  State,  400. 

Briggs,  Isaac,  468. 

Brock,  Isaac,  military  commander  of 
Upper  Canada,  558;  his  energy,  558, 
559 ;  captures  Detroit,  559. 

"  Broken  Voyage,"  222-224. 

Brougham,  Henry.  Argues  against  or- 
ders in  council,  307. 

Brown,  Andrew.  Letters  of  Charles  D. 
Cooper  to,  52. 

Brown,  John,  Senator  from  Kentucky. 
Connections  with  Burr,  57. 

Brain,  Peter  B.,  District  Judge  of  Missis- 
sippi Territory.  Burr  visits,  73, 129. 

Bryant,  William  Cullen.  "  The  Embar- 
go," etc.,  324,  325  and  note. 

Buenos  Ayres.    Insurrection  in?  369. 

Bull's  Head  Tavern,  Philadelphia.  Leip- 
er's  railway  at,  494. 

Burr,  Aaron.  The  delegates  from  Or- 
leans, 31 ;  nominated  for  Governor  of 
New  York,  49,  50 ;  opposed  by  Hamil- 
ton, 50;  efforts  of  Pickering  to  elect, 
51 ;  defeated,  51 ;  remarks  of  Hamilton 
on  Burr,  52 ;  challenges  Hamilton  and 
kills  him,  53 :  flees  to  Philadelphia,  54 ; 
indicted  in  New  York  and  New  Jersey, 
54;  asks  aid  of  the  English  Minister  in 
his  attempt  to  split  the  Union,  54,  55 
and"  note ;  goes  south,  55 ;  plans  a  west- 
ern confederacy,  55,  56 ;  second  appeal 
to  the  English  Minister,  56 ;  starts  for 
New  Orleans,  56;  meets  Blennerhas- 
set,  56 ;  reception  in  the  West,  56,  57 ; 
at  New  Orleans  in  1805,  58,  59 ;  meets 
Wilkinson  at  St.  Louis,  59,  60;  visits 
W.  H.  Harrison,  60 ;  returns  to  Phila- 
delphia, 60 ;  hints  of  his  plan  made  pub- 
lic, 60,  61 ;  reports  to  Merry,  61 ;  sends 
Dayton  to  Spanish  Minister,  62 ;  plan  to 


564 


INDEX. 


seize  President,  etc.,  62 ;  seeks  to  enlist 
public  men  in  his  scheme,  62,  63  j  goes 
west  to  begin  his  revolution,  63 ;  inter- 
view with  Morgan,  63 ;  warning  of  his 
schemes  sent  to  Jefferson.  64 ;  at  Blen- 
nerhasset's  island,  64 ;  the  "  Querist," 
64,  65 ;  begins  the  expedition,  65,  66 ; 
rumors  of  the  expedition,  66 ;  Jefferson 
informs  his  Cabinet  regarding,  66 ;  ac- 
tion taken,  67 ;  Graham  sent  south  to 
warn  the  governors,  67 ;  Burr  arrested 
in  Kentucky,  67 ;  defended  by  Henry 
Clay,  68 ;  is  discharged,  68 ;  acquitted 
a  second  time.  69 ;  entertained  at  Frank- 
fort, 69:  Ogden  and  Swartwout  g^>  to 
New  Orleans,  69, 70 ;  Swartwout  delivers 
Burr's  letter  to  Wilkinson,  70 ;  Wilkin- 
son betrays  Burr,  70 ;  proclamation  of 
Jefferson,  71 ;  Burr's  letter  toYrujo,  71 ; 
both  seized  at  Marietta,  72;  Blenner- 
hasset  flees,  72;  Jackson  questions 
Burr,  72;  passes  Fort  Massoc,  72 ;  visits 
the  commander,  73 ;  hears  that  he  is 
betrayed,  73 ;  agents  arrested  at  New  Or- 
leans, 74 ;  leaves  jurisdiction  of  Missis  • 
sippi,  74;  surrenders  to  Governor  ot 
Mississippi  Territory,  75 ;  grand  jury 
acquit  him,  75 ;  flees,  75 ;  letter  to  the 
Governor,  75;  proclamation  for  his 
arrest,  75 ;  arrested  and  taken  to  Rich- 
mond,  76 ;  brought  before  Marshall  and 
held,  79;  Richmond  during  his  trial, 
79-81 ;  the  grand  jury,  81 ;  indicted  by 
grand  jury,  83 ;  trial  begins,  81 ;  the 
charge  of  treason  argued,  84,  85;  ac- 
quitted on,  85 ;  charge  of  misdemeanor 
tried,85 ;  acquitted  on,85;  motion  to  send 
him  to  Mississippi  Territory,  86 ;  held 
for  trial  in  Ohio,  86 ;  fails  to  appear, 
86,  87 ;  later  career,  87,  88 ;  presides  at 
trial  of  Chase,  175;  treatment  of,  by 
Jefferson,  175, 176. 

Bullus,  Dr.  John.  Present  at  the  Chesa- 
peake attack,  264;  sent  to  England 
with  despatches,  264;  delivers  the 
packet  to  Monroe,  268 ;  returns,  269. 

Cabal.    The  Kepublican,  399. 
Cabildo,  19. 

Cabinet  officers,  1801-1813 : 
State,  Secretaries  of: 

James  Madison,  March  5, 1801. 

Robert  Smith,  March  6, 1809. 

James  Monroe,  April  2, 1811. 
Treasury,  Secretary  of: 

Albert  Gallatin,  May  14, 1801. 
War,  Secretaries  of: 

Henry  Dearborn,  March  5, 1801. 

William  Eustis,  March  7, 1809. 

John  Armstrong,  January  13, 1813. 
Navy,  Secretaries  of: 

Robert  Smith,  July  15, 1801. 

Paul  Hamilton,  March  7, 1809. 

William  Jones,  January  15, 1813. 
Attorneys-General : 

Levi  Lincoln,  March  5, 1801. 

Robert  Smith,  March  3, 1805. 

John  Breckinridge,  August  7, 1805. 

Ctesar  A.  Rodney,  January  20, 1807. 


William    Pinkney,    December    11, 

1811. 

Postmaster-General : 
Gideon  Granger,  November  28, 1801. 

Calhoun,  John  Caldwell.  Elected  to 
Congress,  420 ;  announces  the  coming 
embargo  to  his  friends,  451 ;  reports  in 
favor  of  war,  457. 

Campaign,  The  presidential,  of  1804.  The 
congressional  caucus,  187  ;  candidates, 
188 ;  contest  in  the  States,  188-195 ;  re- 
sult, 197  ;  meaning  of  result  to  Jeffer- 
son, 197, 198  ;  inauguration  speech,  198, 
199 ;  the  presidential,  of  1808, 313 ;  the 
caucus,  313,  314 ;  revolt  against  it,  314- 
316,  317,  336,  337 ;  in  Massachusetts  in 
1811,  420-423;  plan  for,  on  Northern 
frontier,  556. 

Campbell,  G.  H.  Commands  the  gun- 
boats at  St.  Mary's,  538. 

Campbell,  George  Washington,  177. 180, 
297 ;  chairman  of  Ways  and  Means 
Committee,  297,  318 ;  presents  "  Camp- 
bell's Report"  on  foreign  relations,  318, 
319-320 ;  debate  on,  320.  321. 

"  Campbell's  Report."  Written  by  Gal- 
latin, 318 ;  substance  of,  319 ;  debate  on, 
319-321. 

Cambrian.  Ordered  to  leave  waters  of 
United  States,  239;  affair  of,  at  New 
York,  246,  247. 

Campus  Martius  at  Detroit,  140. 

Canada,  The  province  of  Upper,  557,  558; 
Hull  invades,  558 ;  activity  of  Brock, 
558 ;  sympathy  or  people  of,  for  the 
United  States,  558. 

Canals,  465 ;  Delaware  and  Chesapeake, 
471,  472 ;  applies  to  Congress  for  aid, 
471 ;  proposition  to  give  land,  472, 473 ; 
Gallatin's  plan  for  canals,  473-475 ;  peti- 
tions for  aid,  475 ;  Carondelet,  475 ; 
Dismal  Swamp,  471,  474;  Ohio,  475, 
478;  Union,  478.  479;  Erie  Canal,  479. 

Canning.  Note  to  Monroe  on  Chesapeake 
affair,  268 ;  refuses  satisfaction,  269 ; 
Rose  sent  to  United  States,  269,  270 ; 
instructions  to  Rose,  282 ;  receives  let- 
ters from  John  Henry,  285,  286 ;  de- 
fends orders  in  council,  307 ;  Erskine 
urges  concessions  to  the  United  States, 
322.  323 ;  concessions  made,  339-341 ; 
Erskine's  arrangement  as  to  non-inter- 
course, 341,  342 ;  disavows  the  arrange- 
ment, 348,  349 ;  sends  out  F.  J.  Jackson, 
849. 

Caracas.  The  insurrection  in,  369. 

Caramalli.  Hamet.  Eaton's  plan  to  re- 
store him,  205;  Eaton  organizes  an 
army,  206.  207. 

Caramalli.  Jussuf,  200,  205,  207;  peace 
made  with,  207,  208. 

Carlisle.   Meeting  of  friends  of  peace,  553. 

Carlos  IV.    Driven  from  Spain,  309,  310. 

Carondelet  Canal,  475. 

Castlereagh,  Lord.  Urges  retaliation  for 
Berlin  decree,  272 ;  Henry  letters  sent 
to,  286. 

Cass,  Lewis.  Writes  Hull's  proclamation, 
558. 


INDEX. 


565 


Cassa  Calvo,  Marquis  of.  Delivers  Louisi- 
ana tc  France,  10, 11 ;  lingers  at  New 
Orleans,  27. 

Catekill.    Wages  at,  509. 

Catholics,  Roman.  Disfranchised,  148; 
enfranchised,  149. 

Caucus,  Congressional.  For  nominating 
President  and  Vice-President,  origin, 
187 ;  caucus  of  1804, 187,  188 ;  of  1812, 
448,  456. 

Census  of  manufacture  ordered,  507. 

Cession  of  Louisiana  to  England  and 
Spain,  33 ;  of  land  to  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment, 95,  97,  100,112. 

Cevallos,  Dom  Pedro.  Spanish  Minister 
of  foreign  affaire,  36 ;  refuses  to  ratify 
the  convention,  36 ;  Pinckney  threat- 
ens him,  36.  37 ',  negotiations  with 
Pinckney  ana  Monroe,  38-41. 

Champagny,  Due  de  Cadore.  Letter  to 
Armstrong;  remonstrates  with  Napo- 
leon on  behalf  of  the  United  States,  362  • 
answers  Armstrong  as  to  the  repeal  of 
decrees,  363,  364;  action  of  Secretary 
Smith  on  the  letter,  364 ;  lectures  Arm- 
strong, 366,  367 ;  receives  copy  of  Ma- 
con  Act,  367,  368  ;  promises  the  repeal 
of  decrees,  Nov.  1,  1810,  368 ;  report  to 
Napoleon,  408,  425 ;  succeeded  by  Due 
dc  Bassano,  409. 

Champlain.  Smuggling  on  the  lake,  304, 
305 ;  steamboat  on,  491 ;  leave  to  run  a 
steamboat  on,  refused  by  Jefferson,  304. 

Charters.  For  manufacturing  companies 
from  1809  to  1812,  584. 

Chase,  Samuel.,  Associate  Justice.  On 
reforms  in  Maryland,  162;  impeached, 
168-172 ;  trial  of  173-175, 177-181 ;  ac- 
quitted, 181, 182. 

Chesapeake,  The  United  States  Frigate. 
Deserter  from  the  Melampus  to  enlist 
in  her  crew,  255;  and  from  Halifax, 
255, 256  ;  correspondence  regarding  255, 
256 ;  Berkeley's  order  regarding,  256, 
257 ;  sails,  257,  258 ;  followed  and  at- 
tacked by  the  Leopard,  258 ;  surrenders 
and  is  searched,  259 ;  excitement  over, 
259,  264. 

Chesapeake  Bay.  Attempts  to  establish 
a  steamboat  line  on,  493. 

Cheves,  Langdon,  420;  on  the  bill  to 
equip  the  navy,  439. 

Chew,  Samuel,  captain  of  the  Thames. 
Reports  French  outrages,  449. 

Children.  Punishment  of,  in  Northwest 
Territory,  114. 

Chilli cothe.    Land  office,  124 

Chittenden.-  Martin.  Moves  repeal  of 
embargo,  319. 

Cincinnati.    Land  office  at,  124. 

Circuits  of  the  Federal  Court,  163, 164. 

Civil  Government  of  Louisiana,  21,  22. 

Claiborne,  William  Charles  Cole.  Sketch 
of,  12,  13;  receives  Louisiana  from 
France,  13,  14;  governor  of  Orleans, 
26 ;  opposition  to,  26,  27 ;  hated  at  New 
Orleans,  58 ;  sends  word  of  frontiei 
troubles,  210;  sent  into  West  Florida, 
371 ',  puts  down  insurrection,  371,  372. 


Clay,  Joseph.    Resolutions  on  trade,  230. 

Clay,  Henry.  Defends  Burr,  68,  69 ;  fa- 
vors protection  of  American  manu- 
factures, 502 :  challenges  Marshall,  502 ; 
efforts  in  behalf  of  English  common 
law  418;  Speaker  of  twelfth  Congress, 
427 ;  sketch  of  his  early  life,  427-430 ; 
meaning  of  his  election  to  speakership, 
430 ;  speech  against  bank  charter,  386- 
388 ;  speech  on  war  measures,  436, 437 } 
plan  for  an  embargo,  446. 

Clark,  Christopher,  177. 

Clarke  William.  Exploration  of  North- 
west, by  ,142-144. 

Clermont,  The  steamboat,  490,  491. 

Clinton,  De  Witt  Efforts  to  persuade 
him  to  join  with  the  Federalists  in 
supporting  his  uncle  for  the  presi- 
dency, 317 :  Mayor  of  New  York,  513 ; 
candidate  for  the  presidency,  456. 

Clinton,  George.  Nominated  Vice-Presi- 
dent, 188 ;  candidate  for  the  vice-presi- 
dency, 1808,  315 ;  elected,  317. 

Clothes.  Motion  in  House  of  Represen- 
tatives to  wear  clothes  of  domestic 
manufacture,  299 ;  in  Pennsylvania, 
502 ;  in  Virginia,  502 ;  North  Carolina, 
503  ;  Vermont,  503 ;  resolutions  by  the 
people,  500,  501. 

Coal.    Cost  of  transporting,  472. 

Coast  survey.  Plans  for  survey  of  coast 
of  Georgia  and  North  Carolina,  465, 
466;  survey  of  Long  Island  Sound, 
467;  of  Orleans  territory,  467;  of 
Southern  coast,  467 ;  the  coast  survey 
established,  467,  468 ;  Hassler  sent  to 
London,  468, 469. 

Cockspur  Island.    Cyclone  at,  196. 

Code.  The  criminal,  of  Northwestern 
Territory,  112. 

Coins.  Act  to  make  foreign  coins  legal 
tender,  382, 383 

College.  Manner  of  choosing  the  elec- 
toral colleges  in  the  States  in  1804, 
194 

Columbia,  cost  of  transportation  from, 
463. 

Columbine,  The.  Defies  the  proclama- 
tion 267 ;  outrages  in  New  York  Har- 
bor/268 ;  desertions  from,  268. 

Columbia  River.  The  sources  of,  ex- 
plored by  Lewis  and  Clark.142-144. 

Common  Law  of  England.  Democratic 
hatred  of,  in  Pennsylvania,  159, 160 ;  in 
Tennessee,  501 ;  lawyers  forbidden  to 
cite  in  New  Jersey  courts,  417, 418 ;  in 
Kentucky,  418 ;  in  Pennsylvania,  418. 

Confederacy.  Tecumthe's  plan  for  a  con  - 
federacy,  529,  530. 

Confederacy,  A  Northern.  Plan  of  Pick- 
ering, 48;  Burr's  part  in,  49, 50. 

Congress,  The  Continental.  Land  bounty 
offered,  89 ;  petitioned  to  make  State  of 
Westsylvama,  91 ;  Western  lands  be- 
fore, 91,  92-,  attempts  to  give  it  power 
to  settle  land  claims  of  the  States,  92. 
93;  action  of  Virginia,  94;  action  or 
New  York,  94,  95 ;  appeals  to  the  States 
to  cede,  96 ;  cessions  of  the  States,  97 ; 


566 


INDEX. 


question  of  accepting  Virginia  cession, 

97,  99,    100;    cession   accepted,    100; 
promises  to  Virginia,  100:  ordinance, 
1784,  100-102;  ordinance  for  the  sale 
of  lands,  102-105;  ordinance  against 
squatters,    107;    question  of  dividing 
the  Western  territory,  110;  plan  for 
temporary  government  of,  110,  111 ;  ap- 
plication of  the  Ohio  Company,  111 ; 
ordinance  of  1787, 111,112. 

Congress,  the  eighth. — In  the  Senate. 
Debate  on  purchase  of  Louisiana,  8- 
10 ;  conference  Orleans  bill,  26 ;  ratify 
the  Spanish  convention  of  1802,  34. 

Congress,  the  ninth. — In  the  Senate. 
Bill  passed  to  suspend  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus,  77. 

Congress,    first    session,    eighth. — 
House  of  ^Representatives.    Called  by 
proclamation,  3 ;  call  for  treaty  papers, 
3-6 ;  debate  on  right  to  buy  Louisiana, 
6-8;    appropriate    money  to    pay   for 
Louisiana,  10 ;  petition  from  New  Or- 
leans  merchants,    22,  23;    debate  on 
fovernment  for  Orleans,  23-25;  Mo- 
ile  act,  31. 

Second  session,  eighth  Congress. — 
Protest  from  District  of  Louisiana,  29; 
report  of  Eandolph  on  protests,  30; 
bills  for  Territorial  governments  in 
Louisiana  and  Orleans,  30 ;  Michigan 
Territory  formed,  137. 

First  session  of  ninth  Congress. — 
Call  for  information.  77 ;  debate  on  the 
bill  to  suspend  the  habeas  corpus  act, 
77, 78. 

Congress.  Action  of,  on  Louisiana  pur- 
chase, 3-10,  22-23,  23-25,  29,  30;  on 
suspension  of  habeas  corpus,  77,  78; 
on  use  of  public  domain,  89 ;  on  land 
claims  of  the  States,  91-92,  94,  96,  97, 

98,  99,   100;  ordinance   of  1784,   100- 
103;  ordinance  of  1785,  104,  105;  on 
squatter  rights,  106,  107,  108,  109 ;  or- 
dinance of  1787, 109-112 ;  on  land  sales, 
116-121 :  land  grants,  121 ;  on  division 
of  Northwest  Territory,  123,  124;  on 
Yazoo  land  claims,  128,  130-133;  on 
land  sales  in  small  quantity,  124,  125; 
on  taxation  of  land  sold,  134-136. 

Congress.  Action  of,  on  protection  to 
manufactures,  299,  496-498,  505-506; 
on  slavery  and  the  slave  trade,  514- 
521 ;  act  excluding  negroes  and  mulat- 
toes  from  the  United  States,  517 ;  on 
slavery  in  Northwest  Territory,  521- 
523,  524-526 ;  on  the  Kentucky  petition 
for  protection,  506 ;  orders  a  report  on 
manufactures,  507 ;  another  Kentucky 
petition  for  protection,  507-509;  on 
slavery  and  the  slave  trade,  514-517, 
518-521 ;  on  suspension  of  Art.  VI.  of 
Ordinance  of  1787, 522-524, 526 ;  on  war 
taxes,  549. 

Twelfth  Congress,  first  session. 
Character  of  members.  Young  men  in 
control,  419, 420 ;  Clay  chosen  ispeaker, 
427;  significance  of  nis  election,  430; 
report  on  foreign  relations,  431,  432; 


six  resolutions  offered,  432 ;  speech  of 
Porter,  432,  433 ;  resolution  to  fill  the 
ranks  of  the  regular  army  passed,  433 ; 
Randolph  on  the  second  resolution  for 
additional  regulars,  433 ;  resolution 
passed,  435;  bill  from  the  Senate  for 
more  regulars,  435-437 ;  bill  passed, 
437 ;  Eandolph  on  the  use  of  the 
troops,  437,  438:  bill  for  volunteer 
army,  438;  naval  bill,  439,  440;  war 
taxes,  442-444 ;  the  Henry  letters,  445- 
447 ;  Clay's  plan  of  embargo  and  war, 
449;  the  embargo,  450-452;  the  war 
message,  456,  457 ;  act  declaring  war, 
457 ;  the  vote  on  war,  457. 

Special  session,  May,  1809.  Mes- 
sage, 343 ;  debate  on  suspension  of 
non-intercourse,  344-346. 

Eleventh  Congress,  first  session. 
Resolutions  on  Jackson  afiair,  355,  356, 
357;  Macon  Bill  No.  1,  357-360;  lost 
in  Senate,  360 ;  Macon  Bill  No.  2,  360, 
361 ;  passed,  361. 

Connecticut.  Franchise  in,  147;  rejects 
twelfth  amendment  to  Federal  Consti- 
tution, 187 ;  attempt  to  form  a  new  State 
Constitution,  190, 193 ;  general  election, 
193,  194;  Governor  refuses  to  execute 
Force  Act,  331,  332 ;  encourages  do- 
mestic manufactures,  503 ;  Governor 
refuses  to  detach  the  militia,  544,  545 ; 
asserts  State  rights,  545. 

Conspiracy.  The  trials  of  the  cord- 
wamers  for,  in  Philadelphia,  511,  512 ; 
in  New  York,  513. 

Constitution.     The  ship,  202. 

Constitution  of  New  Jersey,  147, 150, 151 ; 
of  Ohio,  152, 153 ;  of  Pennsylvania,  de- 
mand for  reform,  159-162;  demand  for 
a  Constitution  for  Connecticut,  190-194. 

Constitution,  The  Federal.  Jefferson's 
proposals  to  amend,  regarding  Louisi- 
ana, 1-3;  debate  on  right  to  call  for 
treaty  papers,  3-6 ;  on  right  to  incor- 
porate foreign  territory,  6 ;  meaning  of 
"  this  Union "  and  "  new  States,"  6  ; 
Pickering's  "  partnership  "  theory,  8 ; 
status  of  the  Territories  under,  10; 
amendment  proposed  bv  Massachu- 
setts, 44,  45 ;  answers  of  the  States,  46, 
47 ;  the  twelfth  amendment,  47;  amend- 
ment offered  by  Randolph,  182;  by 
Nicholson,  182;  the  twelfth  amend- 
ment, 183-186:  ratified,  187;  amend- 
ment asked  for  by  North  Carolina,  517 ; 
by  Massachusetts,  518 ;  strict  construc- 
tion of,  by  Pennsylvania,  388,  note; 
meaning  of  preamble,  376. 

Constellation,  The,  208. 

Contador,  21. 

Convention.  Call  for  one  to  amend  Con- 
stitution of  Pennsylvania,  150-162;  of 
New  England  States.  Call  for,  330, 
331. 

Convention  of  1802  with  Spain.  Origin 
of,  34;  ratified  by  Senate,  34;  opinion 
of  American  lawyers  on,  35;  rejected 
by  Spain,  86;  negotiations  regarding, 
86,  38,  39-41. 


INDEX. 


567 


Cooper,  Charles  D.  Letters  to  Andrew 
Brown,  52. 

Cooper,  Thomas,  160. 

Copenhagen.  Bombarded  and  captured 
by  the  English,  272,  273. 

"  Copenhagen  Jackson,"  350. 

Cordwainers.  Strike  of,  and  trial  of,  in 
Philadelphia,  511,  512;  in  New  York, 
513. 

Cost.  Of  travel  between  New  York  and 
Philadelphia,  492,  note ;  of  operating 
steamboats,  493,  note ;  of  embargo,  414- 
416;  of  transportation,  463-465,  472. 

Council  of  Prizes.  Decree  of,  in  case  of 
Horizon,  271. 

Counties.   Increase  of,  in  New  York,  461. 

Courts  of  Louisiana,  20. 

Court,  The  Mayor's.  At  New  York  city. 
Trial  of  journeymen  cordwainers,  513. 
At  Philadelphia.  Trial  of  journey- 
men cordwainers,  512. 

Court.  The  U.  S.  Supreme.  Decision  in 
the  Yazoo  case,  132. 

Craig,  Sir  James,  Governor-General  of 
Canada.  Sends  John  Henrv  to  New 
England,  285,  286 ;  sends  Henry  to 
Boston  in  1809,  446.  447. 

Crawford,  William  Henry.  Speech  in 
favor  of  recharter  of  bank,  388,  389. 

Creek  Indians.  Tecumthe  visits,  535 ; 
excitement  among  the  young  warriors, 
535,  536. 

Crillon,  Count  Edward  de.  Meets  Hen- 
ry, 444 ;  comes  to  the  United  States, 
445 ;  employed  by  Henry  to  negotiate 
with  Monroe,  446 ;  sells  the  letters  for 
Henry,  446 ;  an  impostor,  447. 

Crown  land.  Dispute  as  to  ownership, 
89,  90. 

Cumberland  Eoad,  469,  470. 

Curacoa.  Blockaded  by  Great  Britain,  226. 

Cyclone  of  1804.  Damages  along  the 
coast,  195, 196. 

Dallas,  Alexander,  159. 

Dallas,  Alexander  James,  Third  Lieu- 
tenant, on  the  President,  403. 

Dane,  Nathan.  Asked  for  a  committee 
to  frame  a  plan  of  temporary  govern- 
ment for  the  West,  110,  111 ;  report  of 
committee,  111. 

Daviess,  Joseph  Hamilton.  Owner  01 
Western  World,  64 ;  warns  Jefferson  of 
Burr's  schemes,  64, 65  ;  arrests  Burr,  67  ; 
prosecution  fails,  68,  69  ;  killed  at  Tip- 
pecanoe,  534, 535. 

Dayton,  0.  Troops  assembled  at,  556; 
Hull  marches  from,  557. 

Dayton,  Jonathan.  Sent  by  Burr  to  the 
Spanish  Minister,  62  ;  plan  to  seize  the 
President,  etc.,  62. 

Dearborn,  Henry.  Made  a  Major-Gen- 
eral,  546 ;  plan  for  the  campaign,  556 ; 
urged  to  attack  Canada,  559  ;  concludes 
an  armistice,  560. 

Debates  in  Congress.  On  the  purchase 
of  Louisiana,  3-9 ;  on  a  government  for 
Territory  of  Orleans,  23-25 ;  on  Twelfth 
Amendment  to  Federal  Constitution, 


183-187  ;  on  purchase  of  Florida,  213- 
215 ;  on  trade  with  San  Domingo,  218 ; 
on  non-importation,  231-236;  on  sup- 
plementary embargo,  295,  296  ;  on  mo- 
tion to  wear  home-manufactured  goods, 
299v;  on  Campbell's  report,  319-321; 
on  repeal  of  embargo,  333-336 ;  on  sus- 
pension of  non-intercourse,  344-346; 
on  conduct  of  Jackson,  355-357;  on 
Macon  Bill  No.  1,  357-360 ;  on  Macon 
Bill  No.  2,  360 ;  on  admission  of  Louis- 
iana to  the  Union,  375-378 ;  on  circula- 
tion of  foreign  coin,  383,  384;  on  re- 
charter  of  U.  S.  Bank,  386-389  ;  on  non- 
intercourse,  392-394,  395-397;  on  war 
measures,  432-444;  on  taxing  slaves 
imported,  518,  519 ;  on  abolition  of 
slave  trade,  520,  521. 

Debtors.  Increase  in  number  of,  under 
embargo,  415 ;  stay  laws,  416,  417. 

Decatur.  Burns  the  Philadelphia  off 
Tripoli,  203. 

Decrees.  Of  France,  1793-1800,  220-223 ; 
Berlin,  249-250, 271-272 ;  Milan  decree, 
292, 293 ;  refusal  to  revoke,  363, 364 ;  con- 
ditions of  revocation,  364, 365 ;  new  de- 
cree, 366 ;  Kambouillet  decree;  367 ;  re- 
peal of  Berlin  and  Milan  promised,  368 ; 
Napoleon  to  the  deputies,  425;  Napo- 
leon to  the  bankers,  425, 426 ;  no  evi- 
dence of  repeal  of  decrees  comes  from 
France,  456 ;  evidence  of  repeal  sent  to 
Congress  by  Madison,  394;  Foster's 
statement  of  England's  position  on, 
406, 407 ;  not  repealed,  407, 408 ;  Mon- 
roe asserts  that  they  are,  410, 411 ;  Fed- 
eralist evidence  that  they  were  not, 
424;  Cadore's  report,  425 ;  Semonville's 
speech,  425. 

Decres,  Denis  Due,  366. 

Delassus,  Don  Carlos  Dehautl,  Governor 
of  West  Florida,  370 ;  insurrection  un- 
der, 370,  371 ;  taken  prisoner,  371. 

Delaware  Kiver.  Steamboat  on,  491, 492, 
493. 

Delaware  and  Chesapeake  Canal.  Origin 
of,  471 :  applies  to  Congress  for  aid,  471, 
472;  plan  to  give  it  land,  472,473,479. 

Delaware  and  Earitan  Canal,  474,  note. 

Delaware.  Qualifications  of  office-hold- 
ers, 148 ;  of  voters,  149 ;  rejects  twelfth 
amendment,  187. 

Denmark.  Threatened  by  Napoleon, 
272;  Copenhagen  burned  by  English, 
272,  273 ;  fleet  seized  by  English,  273. 

De  Pestre  or  Dupiestre.  Confederate  of 
Burr,  63  j  delivers  Burr's  letter  to 
Yrujo,  71 ;  reports  to  Yrujo,  72. 

Dobbyn,  H.  W.  Petitions  for  leave  to 
buy  land,  117. 

Depository  .General,  19. 

Derbigny,  Pierre,  28 ;  meets  Burr,  55. 

Derne.  Capture  of,  by  Eaton,  207 ;  aban- 
doned, 208. 

Desertion  of  sailors.  From  English  ships, 
242 ;  not  recoverable,  242,  243 ;  action 
of  Virginia,  244 ;  from  Melampus,  255 ; 
from  Halifax,  255,  256  ;  order  of  Berke- 
ley regarding,  256,  257. 


568 


INDEX. 


Detroit.  Burned  in  1805, 138, 139  ;  new 
city  laid  out,  139, 140 ;  "  Campus  Mar- 
tius,"  140  ;  "  Grand  Circus,"  140 ;  fort 
at,  541,  542. 

Direct  trade  defined,  222-224  ;  again  for- 
bidden, 224 ;  new  proviso,  224,  225. 

Disfrancnisement  of  Koman  Catholics, 
Hebrews,  etc.,  148. 

Dismal  Swamp  Canal,  471,  474,  note. 

District  of  Columbia.  Judiciary  of,  164, 
165 ;  case  of  Marbury  vs.  Madison,  165- 
167. 

District  system  of  choosing  electors  of 
President,  194. 

Districting  Act  of  Massachusetts,  452. 

Disunion.  Sentiment  in  New  England, 
43-48 ;  Burr's  attempt,  54-86 ;  Henry's 
report  on,  285,  286  ;  resolutions  on  the 
Force  Act,  328,  329;  Pickering's  at- 
tempt, 330,  331. 

Dogs.  Tax  on;  in  Pennsylvania  for  pur- 
chase of  Merino  rams,  503. 

Domain,  The  public.  [See  also  Public 
Lands.]  Claims  of  the  States  to  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  89,  90 ;  attempt  to 
settle  ownership,  91,  92 ;  action  of 
Maryland,  92;  of  Khode  Island,  92; 
of  New  Jersey,  92 :  of  Virginia,  93,  94 ; 
cession  by  New  York,  95;  cession  by 
the  States,  97 ;  Pelatiah  Webster's  plan 
for  the  use  of,  96,  note ;  plan  of  Con- 
gresSj  96,  97 ;  Eland's  plan,  98,  99 ; 
promises  to  Virginia,  100 ;  ordinance 
for  government  of,  100-102 ;  ordinance 
for  sale  of  land,  102,  103 ;  squatters 
driven  from,  105-108 ;  survey  of,  be- 

fun,  108,  109;  plan  for  cutting  into 
tates,  110;  ordinance  of  1787,  112; 
Territory  south  of  Ohio  formed,  117 ; 
Indiana  Territory  established,  121-124 ; 
dispute  over  Yazoo  lands,  128,  129 ; 
Mississippi  Territory  formed,  129; 
Michigan  formed,  137 ;  exploration  of 
Lewis  and  Clarke,  142-144 ;  of  Z.  M. 
Pike,  144, 145. 

Douglas,  John  Erskine.  Berkeley's  or- 
der reaches,  257 ;  public  feeling  to- 
ward, 260 ;  threatens  Norfolk,  260,  261. 

Driver,  The.  Ordered  out  of  waters  of 
United  States,  239 ;  affair  of,  in  New 
York  Harbor,  246,  247 ;  return,  254. 

Duane,  William  J.  Pamphlet  on  inter- 
nal improvements  in  Pennsylvania, 
481, 482 ;  effect,  482,  483. 

Duanc,  William,  80;  hatred  of  English 
common  law,  159 ;  calls  for  amendment 
of  Constitution  of  Pennsylvania,  160- 
162. 

Du  Ponceau,  P.  S.  On  claims  for  Span- 
ish indemnity,  35 ;  refuses  to  prosecute 
Pennsylvania  judge,  159. 

Eagle  Tavern,  at  Kichmond.  Bun- 
brought  before  Marshall  at,  76,  79; 
scenes  at,  81. 

Early,  Peter,  173, 177, 180 ;  speech  on  slave 
trade,  520. 

Eaton,  General  William.  Sounded  by 
Burr,  63;  warns  Jefferson,  63,  69;  at 


Kichmond  during  the  trial  of  Burr,  79, 
81,  84;  life  of,  204,  205;  relations  with 
Hamet  Caramalli,  205;  sent  out  as 
navy  agent,  205 ;  at  Cairo,  206:  organ- 
izes his  army,  206, 207 ;  march  across 
the  desert,  207,  208 ;  capture  of  Derne, 
207;  peace  made,  207,  208;  Derne 
evacuated,  208. 

Education.  "Section  16"  reserved  for 
education,  105 ;  school  lands  in  Ohio, 
134: 136. 

Election.  The  presidential,  in  1804, 197- 
199 ;  in  1808,  313-317. 

Electors  of  President  and  Vice-President. 
Struggle  for  a  general  ticket  in  Massa- 
chusetts, 188, 189 ;  law  regarding,  188, 
note ;  manners  of  choosing,  in  the  State, 
194. 

Electoral  vote  in  1804, 197 ;  in  1808,  317. 

Ellicott,  Andrew,  468. 

Ellisburg.    Embargo  riots,  306. 

Embargo.  Laid  at  New  Orleans  at  Wil- 
kinson's request,  74. 

Embargo,  The,  or  Sketches  of  the  Times, 
by  W.  C.  Bryant,  323, 325  and  note. 

Embargo  of  1807.  Cause  of,  276 ;  Madi- 
son frames  the  message,  276 ;  Gallatin 
opposes,  276,  277;  embargo  laid,  277, 
278;  evaded,  279;  first  supplementary 
act,  280,  281 ;  effects  of,  289 ;  "  O-grab- 
me,"  "  Go-bar-em."  "  Dambargo,"  291, 
292;  denounced  by  Federalists,  290, 
291 ;  defended  by  Republicans,  292 ; 
not  enforced  along  the  border,  293, 294 ; 
debate  on  second  supplementary  act, 
295,  296 ;  the  act,  296 ;  evasions  along 
the  Canadian  border,  296,  297 ;  procla- 
mation of  Jefferson  concerning  Ver- 
mont, 297  ;  authorized  to  suspend,  298 ; 
third  supplementary  act,  298 ;  effect  of, 
800 ;  circular  of  Gallatin,  300,  301 ; 
flour  certificates,  302, 303 ;  Gallatin  cir- 
cular declared  illegal,  302;  importa- 
tion of  food  stopped,  303,  304 ;  smug- 
gling on  Lake  Champlain,  304 ;  fight- 
ing on,  305 ;  at  Oswego,  305 ;  at  Sackett's 
Harbor,  305;  Salmon  river,  306;  at 
Lewiston,  306:  at  Newburyport,  306; 
no  effect  on  England.  307 ;  duty  laid 
on  American  ships  and  cargo,  307, 308 ; 
Bayonne  decree,  309 ;  explanation  of 
decree,  311 ;  efforts  to  secure  a  suspen- 
sion of  embargo,  Boston  letter,  312; 
answers  of  the  towns,  312,313;  effect 
of  the  embargo  on  the  election,  317 ; 
anniversary  of  the  embargo,  323-325 : 
ballads  on,  324, 325 ;  the  s Force  Act," 
825,326;  excitement  in  New  England 
over  Force  Act,  326-330;  action  of 
Massachusetts,  329, 330 ;  Connecticut  re- 
fuses to  execute,  331,  332 ;  petitions  for 
repeal  of  embargo,  332, 333 ;  the  repeal, 
333-336;  effect  on  trade,  412,  413; 
monetary  loss  caused  by,  414, 415 ;  in- 
crease of  debtors,  415;  stay  laws,  416, 
417. 

"  Embargo  Day,"  323-325. 

Embargo  of  1812.  Plan  of  Clay  regard- 
ing, 449 ;  Madison  accepts,  450 ;  Porter 


INDEX. 


569 


brings  in  the  bill,  450;  passed,  450; 
rumors  that  it  was  to  pass,  451 :  notice 
sent  to  the  seaports  before  the  bill 
passed,  451 ;  scenes  at  Philadelphia, 
451;  at  New  York,  451;  at  Boston, 
452. 

Emerson,  John.  Handbill  regarding 
State  in  Northwest  Territory,  106,  note. 

England.  Colonial  trade  of,  219 ;  "  Eule 
or  1756,"  220 ;  orders  in  council  and 
blockades,  220-223;  the  broken  voy- 
age, 222,  223;  the  Polly,  223;  the 
Mercury,  223,  224 ;  new  rule,  225 ;  case 
of  Essex,  Enoch,  Rowena,  226 ;  eifect  of, 
in  the  United  States,  227-229;  action 
in  Congress.  231-236 ;  Non-importation 
Act  passed,  236;  impressment  of 
American  sailors,  240-245;  desertion 
of  English  sailors,  242-244 ;  grievances 
of  United  States  against,  245,  246 ;  af- 
fair of  Cambrian  and  Driver,  246,  247 ; 
mission  of  Monroe,  247-249;  treaty 
made  with,  249-251:  rejected  by  Jef- 
ferson, 251-253;  Chesapeake  affair, 
255-264 :  bums  Copenhagen,  272,  273 ; 
seizes  Danish  fleet,  273;  orders  in 
council,  Nov.  11,  1807,  272-274;  Rose 
mission  and  failure,  281-283;  the 
license  system  of  trade  for  neutrals,  274 ; 
cost  of.  to  neutrals,  307,  308 ;  orders  in 
council  attacked  in  Parliament,  307 ; 
Erskine  affair,  322,  323,  339-342:  dis- 
avowal, 348,  349 ;  Erskine  recalled  and 
F.  J.  Jackson  sent  to  the  United  States, 
349;  quarrels  with  Madison,  351-353: 
Pinkney  asks  what  orders  in  council 
are  in  force.  364;  answer,  364,  365- 
informed  of  Napoleon's  terms  of  recall 
of  decrees,  365-368 ;  answer,  369 ;  sends 
A.  J.  Foster  to  replace  F.  J.  Jackson, 
401 ;  instructions  to,  402 ;  Foster's 
statement  of  her  position  as  to  repeal 
of  decrees,  406, 407 ;  war  declared  with, 
456-^58. 

Enlistment.    Bounties  to  encourage,  543. 

Enterprise,  The,  202. 

Eppes,  299 ;  on  non-intercourse,  396 :  quar- 
rel with  Randolph,  396 ;  challenges 
him.396. 

Erie  Canal.  Applies  to  Congress  and 
the  States  for  aid.  478,  479 ;  answer  of 
the  States,  497 ;  refusal  of  Congress,  479. 

Erskine,  Lord  Chancellor.  Speech  against 
orders  in  council,  307. 

Erskine,  David  Montague.  Succeeds 
Anthony  Merry  as  English  Minister, 
63 ;  sounds  Madison  and  Gallatin,  322 ; 
recommendations  to  Canning,  322,  323 ; 
Canning's  answer,  339,  340;  the  ar- 
rangement with  Madison,  341, 342 ;  Non- 
intercourse  Law  suspended,  342 ;  disa- 
vowed by  England,  348,  349 ;  recalled, 
348. 

Essex,  The,  207. 

Eustis,  William,  Secretary  of  War,  339 ; 
authorizes  new  Indian  treaties,  529 ; 
anger  of  the  Indians,  529. 

Evans,  Oliver.  His  Oruktor,  487;  in- 
ventions of,  495. 


Exclusion  Law.  Negroes  and  mulattoes 
shut  from  the  United  States,  516,  517. 

Exploration.  Of  Lewis  and  Clarke,  142- 
144 ;  of  Z.  M.  Pike,  144, 145. 

Eylau,  Battle  of,  272. 

Faneuil  Hall.    Meetings  at,  555. 

Fare.  By  coach  from  New  York  city  to 
Philadelphia,  492,  note. 

Farms,  number  of,  in  Michigan  Territory, 
141. 

Federal  Republican.  Destruction  of  the 
office  of,  553-556. 

Fernandina.  Captured  by  insurgents  of 
East  Florida,  538, 539. 

Ferdinand  VII.  Becomes  King  of  Spain, 
310;  dethroned  by  Napoleon,  310. 

Ferry-boats.    Steam  ferry-boats,  493, 494. 

Finances.    Gallatin's  report  on,  321. 

Filibustering  in  Congress,  182, 183. 

Flag.  Of  the  insurgents  in  East  Florida, 
538;  the  Danish,  used  by  American 
slavers,  516. 

Flint,  Royal,  115. 

Flintoph,  John,  Lieutenant.  Fires  on 
Passamaquoddy,  254. 

Florida.  Jefferson's  proposed  constitu- 
tional amendment  for  the  admission  of, 
to  the  Union,  2;  Spanish  garrisons 
strengthened  in,  210 ;  Jefferson  decides 
to  buy,  211, 212 ;  question  in  the  House, 
213-215 ;  money  voted,  219. 

Florida,  East.  History  of,  33 ;  ceded  by- 
England  to  Spain,  33 ;  Governor  Folch 
offers  to  cede?  373;  Madison  asks  au- 
thority to  receive,  373 ;  authority  given. 
374,  375j  George  Matthews  appointed 
commissioner  to  receive  the  province, 
375 ;  proceeds  to  St.  Mary's,  537 ;  en- 
courages a  revolution  in,  537,  538 ;  reb- 
els seize  Fernandina,  538,  539 ;  Amelia 
Island  surrendered  to  the  United  States, 
539 ;  St.  Augustine  besieged,  539 ;  Mat- 
thews recalled,  539 ;  Governor  Mitchell 
of  Georgia  succeeds  him,  539?  540: 
seizes  English  ships  on  the  opening  of 
war,  540. 

Florida,  West.  Claim  of  the  United  States 
to,  31-34;  made  a  collection  district, 
31 ;  protest  of  Yrujo,  31 ;  history  of, 
33;  Armstrong  and  Talleyrand  on,  39, 
209;  views  of  Cabinet  on  in  1805,209; 
rebellion  in,  370,  371 ;  State  of,  formed, 
371 ;  taken  possession  of  by  the  United 
States,  371-373 ;  offer  of  Governor  Folch 
to  surrender  province,  373;  action  of 
Congress,  374:  secret  act  concerning, 
374;  independence  of  West  Florida 
proclaimed,  371 ;  governor  elected,  372: 
rebellion  ended,  373 ;  province  annexed 
to  Louisiana  and  Mississippi,  540. 

Flour  certificates,  301 ;  use  of,  by  Sul- 
livan, 301. 

Flour.  Shipment  of,  over  the  frontier, 
293,  294 ;  shipment  stopped,  301 ;  flour 
certificates,  301,  302;  importation  of, 
stopped,  303 ;  cost  of  transporting,  463. 

Floyd,  David.    Indicted  for  treason,  83. 

Folch,  Vincente.    Governor  of  Florida, 


570 


INDEX. 


373 ;  letter  to  Secretary  of  State,  373  • 
offers  to  give  up  Florida  to  the  United 


Foster, 

son  as  English  Minister,  401;  takes 
leave,  402 ;  instructions,  402 ;  reaches 
the  United  States,  402 ;  hears  of  Little 
Belt  affair,  402 ;  protests  against  occu- 
pation of  Florida,  406 ;  his  statement  of 
England's  position  on  French  decrees, 
406,  407  ;  Monroe  answers  him,  410, 411. 

"Force  Act."  Gallatin  asks  for  one  to 
enforce  embargo,  323;  passage  of  the 
act,  325,  326 ;  excitement,  326, 327  ;  town 
meetings  to  denounce,  327-329 ;  action 
of  General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  329, 
330;  Governor  refuses  to  execute  it, 
331,  332 ;  mob  violence,  332 ;  petitions 
for  repeal,  332,  333 ;  repeal  demanded 
in  Congress,  333-336;  embargo  re- 
pealed, 336. 

Fort  Adams,  69,  70;  Ogden  and  Swart- 
wout  arrested  at,  74. 

Fort  Finney,  108. 

Fort  Green.    Cyclone  at,  196. 

Fort  Dearborn,  536,  541. 

Forts,  French,  in  the  Mississippi  Val- 
ley, 32. 

Fort  Harmar,  108. 

Fort  Harrison,  541. 

Fort  Mclntosh,  Indian  Treaty  at,  103. 

Fort  Madison,  536. 

Fort  Mackinaw,  541. 

Fort  Maiden  in  Upper  Canada.  English 
agents  supply  Indians  with  arms,  531 ; 
capture  of  Hull's  baggage,  557. 

Fort  Massac.  Wilkinson  and  Burr  at,  in 
1805,  58,  59.  Orders  sent  to  stop  Burr, 
70 ;  Burr  escapes  past  the  fort,  72 ;  vis- 
its the  commander  and  is  arrested  by, 
73. 

Fort  Moosa,  539,  540. 

Fort  Stoddart,  76. 

Fort  Stanwix,  Indian  treaty  at,  103. 

Fort  Pitt,  109. 

Fort  Wayne,  530,  531,  532,  541. 

France.  Eestrictions  on  neutral  trade, 
219-222;  blockade  of  her  coast,  248, 
249;  Berlin  decree,  249,  250;  Milan 
decree,  292,  293 ;  Bayonne  decree,  309, 
310 :  Eambouillet  decree,  367. 

Franchise.  Kestriction  on,  in  the  early 
constitutions  of  the  States,  146-148; 
women  vote  in  New  Jersey,  147. 

Frankfort,  Kentucky.  Western  World 
published  at,  64 ;  trial  of  Burr  at,  67, 
68,  69 ;  people  of,  entertain  Burr,  69. 

Freehold.  Necessary  in  order  to  vote, 
147 :  to  hold  office,  148. 

French,  The.  Discovery  and  settlement 
of  Louisiana,  32 ;  forts  in  the  Missis- 
sippi Valley,  32,  33 ;  in  Michigan,  140, 
141 ;  forts  on  the  Lakes,  33 ;  spoliations 
on  American  commerce  in  Spanish 
ports.  34 ;  cede  Louisiana  to  England 
and  Spam,  33. 

Freight  Cost  of  transporting  from  Col- 
umbia to  Philadelphia,  463 ;  from 


Chesapeake  Bay  to  Delaware  river, 
463;  from  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburg, 
463 ;  from  IS  ew  York  to  Lewiston,  463 ; 
tolls,  464 ;  from  Ogdensburg  to  Mont- 
real, 465 ;  cost  of  coal  transportation, 
472. 

Friends,  The  Society  of.  Efforts  for 
abolition  of  slavery,  514,  515. 

Friedland,  Battle  of,  272. 

Frontier,  exposed  condition  of,  541 ;  forts 
on  the  northern,  541,  542 ;  on  the  south- 
ern, 542;  troubles  on  southern,  209- 
213,  213-215 ;  evasions  of  the  embargo 
along,  293,  294,  296,  297 ;  the  frontier 
line  ml  81 2,  459,  460. 

Fulton,  Kobert.  Sketch  of,  487,  488; 
meets  E.  K.  Livingston,  488 ;  experi- 
ments on  the  Seine,  489  ;  return  to  New 
York,  489 ;  the  Clermont,  490  ;  the  Ear- 
itan,  491,  492  •  monopoly  of,  attacked, 
492,  493  ;  rival  company  enjoined,  493. 

Gaines,  Edmund  Pendlcton,  first  lieuten- 
ant of  Second  Infantry,  commanding 
Fort  Stoddart.  Arrests  Burr,  76. 

Gallatin,  Albert.  Eecommcndation  re- 
garding revenue  from  land  sales,  134 ; 
on  the  purchase  of  Florida,  209,  213; 
opposes  long  embargo,  276,  277 ;  circu- 
lar to  the  collectors  regarding  embargo, 
300,  301 ;  legality  tested,  302,  303 ;  de- 
spairs of  electing  Madison,  316,  317 ; 
writes  "  Campbell's  .Report,"  318 ;  re- 
port on  finances,  321 ;  interviews  with 
Erskine,  322,  323 ;  asks  for  a  Force  Act, 
323 ;  the  act  passed,  325 ;  frames  Macon 
Bill  No.  1,  357 ;  tenders  his  resignation, 
400 ;  his  part  in  founding  coast  survey, 
468 ;  report  on  internal  improvements, 
473-475;  report  on  manufactures,  506; 
suggests  census  of  manufactures,  507. 

Gammer,  Lord.  Bombards  Copenhagen, 
273. 

Gardenier,  Barent,  on  the  embargo,  295, 
296. 

Garnett,  John,  468. 

"General  Election  "in  Connecticut,  193, 
194. 

General  Ticket.  Choice  of  electors  of 
President  by,  194. 

Genesee  Country.    Wages  in,  509,  510. 

"  Geographer's  line,"  109. 

Georgetown.  The  people  of,  condemn 
Baltimore  mob,  556. 

Georgia.  Land  dispute  with  South  Caro- 
lina, 125, 126  ;  cession  to  Congress,  126, 
127;  sales  to  Yazoo  companies,  127; 
disputes  with  United  States,  128;  com- 
mission to  settle  claims,  128, 129;  pro- 
test against  formation  of  Mississippi 
Territory,  130;  her  cession  to  United 
States,  131, 132 ;  stay  law,  416 ;  survey 
of  coast.  465,  466. 

Gerry,  Elbridge.  Candidate  for  Govern- 
or of  Massachusetts,  420-422 ;  defeated 
for  governorship,  454;  candidate  for 
Vice-President,  456. 

Gerrymander  of  Massachusetts.  The  Dis- 
tricting Act,  452. 


INDEX. 


571 


Gershom,  The  ship,  burned  by  the 
French,  449. 

Giles,  William  B.,  79 ;  at  Burr's  trial,  81 ; 
part  taken  in  trial  of  charge,  176. 

Gloucester.  Opposition  to  Force  Act,  327, 
328. 

God.  Belief  in,  required  of  voters,  147 ; 
of  officeholders,  148. 

Gore,  Christopher,  331 ;  candidate  for 
Governor  of  ^Massachusetts,  420-422. 

Gouging.  Punishment  of,  in  Northwest 
Territory,  114. 

Government,  Civil.  Provisional,  for  Lou- 
isiana, 9,  10;  Spanish  government  of 
Louisiana,  19-22 ;  for  Orleans  Territory, 
23-26  ;  people  of  Orleans  complain  of, 
28,  29 ;  people  of  Louisiana  complain 
of,  29 ;  territorial,  for  Louisiana  and 
Orleans,  30 ;  for  Northwest  Territory, 
100-102, 110,  111. 

Governor.  Qualifications  for,  in  various 
States,  148. 

Grace  Ann  Green.  Seized  by  the  French, 
408 ;  protest  of  Eussell,  408. 

Graham,  John,  Secretary  of  Orleans  Ter- 
ritory. Sent  to  warn  Governors  of 
Burr's  plot,  67 ;  obtains  a  law  regard- 
ing conspiracies  in  Ohio,  68. 

Grand  Cairo.    Eaton  at,  206. 

Grand  Circus  at  Detroit,  140. 

Grandpre",  Louis.  Killed  at  Baton  Kouge, 
371. 

Grants  of  land  for  various  purposes,  472, 
473. 

Greenwich.  Effect  of  embargo  on  the 
trade  of,  291. 

Gregg,  Andrew.  Eesolutions  on  neutral 
trade,  230;  debate  on,  231-235;  laid 
aside,  235. 

Grenville,  Lord.  Opposes  orders  in 
council,  307. 

Griswold,  Eoger,  Governor  of  Connecti- 
cut. Eefuses  to  detach  the  militia,  544, 
545. 

Griswold.  Calls  for  papers  regarding 
purchase  of  Louisiana,  3,  4 ;  the  treaty 
unconstitutional,  6, 7. 

Grundv,  Felix,  420. 

Guadeloupe  blockaded  by  Great  Britain, 
226. 

Gun-boats,  195 ;  No.  1  wrecked,  196 ;  Fed- 
eralist ridicule  of,  196, 197  ;  sail  for  the 
Barbary  coast,  200. 

Habeas  Corpus.  Debate  on  a  bill  to  sus- 
pend, 77,  78. 

Hadley.  Eesolutions  on  the  Force  Act, 
328,  329. 

Halifax,  The,  254-  desertions  from,  255, 
256  ;  enlist  on  Chesapeake,  256. 

Hallowell.     On  the  Force  Act,  329. 

Hamilton,  Alexander.  Opposes  Burr's 
election  in  New  York,  50 ;  remarks  on 
Burr,  52 ;  is  challenged  and  killed  by 
Burr.  52 ;  his  funeral,  53 ;  plan  for  sale 
of  Western  land,  117,  118 ;  not  carried 
out,  118. 

Hamilton,  Paul,  Secretary  of  Navy,  339. 

Hampton,  Wade,  547. 


Hampton  Eoads.  English  fleet  on,  254, 
258, 260 ;  desertions  from  Melampus  and 
Halifax,  255 ;  Norfolk  threatened,  261. 

Hampton.  Water  casks  of  Melampus 
seized  at,  260 ;  preparations  for  de- 
fence, 260 ;  Governor  asked  to  defend, 
264. 

Hanse  Towns.  Napoleon's  speech  to  the 
deputies,  425. 

Harmar,  Colonel.  Account  of  squatters 
on  the  public  lands,  106. 107. 

Harper,  Robert  Goodloe,  172, 177, 180. 

Harper,  William,  164. 

Harrison,  William  Henry.  Burr  visits, 
60 ;  delegate  from  Northwest  Territory, 
121 5  sketch  of,  121,  122 ;  Governor  of 
Indiana  Territory ;  124;  bill  for  sale  of 
land.  124, 125 ;  attitude  toward  slavery 
in  the  Northwest,  524,  525,  528 ;  asks 
power  to  make  an  Indian  treaty,  529 ; 
the  treaty  made,  529 ;  meets  Tecumthe 
at  Vincennes,  531 ;  demands  of  Te- 
cumthe, 531,  532;  Tecumthe  again 
comes  to  Vincennes,  532 ;  gathers  troops, 
532, 533  ;  march  to  Tippecanoe.  533 ;  the 
battle,  533,  534;  thanked  and  abused, 
534,  535. 

Hartford.  Eepublican  festival  at,  1804, 
190;  speech  of  Bishop  at.  190, 191. 

Hassler,  Ferdinand  Eudolph,  Superin- 
tendent of  Coast  Survey.  Sent  to  Lon- 
don, 468,  469. 

Haverhill.    Wages  at,  509. 

Havre  de  Grace  Bridge,  478. 

Hebrews.    Disfranchised,  148. 

Henry,  John,  secret  agent  of  Governor 
of  Canada.  Eeport  on  disunion,  285, 
286 :  returns  from  London,  444 :  meets 
Crillon,  444,  445 ;  sells  copies  of  nis  let- 
ters to  Madison,  445,  446 ;  his  second 
visit  to  New  England  at  the  request  ot 
Craig,  446 ;  the  letters,  446,  447. 

Hill,  William.  Deserter  from  the  Hali- 
fax and  the  Chesapeake,  256 ;  included 
in  Berkeley's  order,  257. 

Hooe,  Eobert  Townsend,  164. 

Hope,  The  steamboat    Enjoined,  493. 

Hopkinson,  Joseph,  177 ;  counsel  for 
Chase,  sp'eech  of,  179, 180. 

Horizon.  Berlin  decree  enforced  in  the 
case  of,  271,  272. 

House  of  Representatives.  Debate  on 
purchase  of  Louisiana,  3-9 ;  debate  on 
government  for  territory  of  Orleans, 
23-25. 

Hubert,  Eichard.  Deserter  from  Hali- 
fax, 256 ;  included  in  Berkeley's  order, 
257. 

Hudson.    Wages  at,  509. 

Hudson  Eiver.  Steamboats  on,  488 ;  the 
Clermont,  490,  491 ;  the  Hope,  493. 

Hull,  William.  Sketch  of,  137, 138 ;  Gov- 
ernor of  Michigan  Territory,  137 ;  ar- 
rival at  Detroit.  138,  139;  appointed 
brigadier-general,  556 ;  takes  command 
of  troops  at  Dayton,  556 ;  condition  of 
the  troops,  557 ;  the  march  to  Detroit, 
557 ;  baggage  captured  by  the  English, 
557 ;  invades  Canada,  558 ;  his  procla- 


572 


INDEX. 


mation,  558;  encamps  at  Sandwich, 
558 ;  retreats  to  Detroit,  559 ;  surrenders, 
559 ;  court-martial,  559. 

Hull.    Town  of,  in  Massachusetts,  453. 

Humphreys.  David.  Thanked  by  Con- 
necticut for  his  establishing  woollen 
mills,  503. 

"Hundreds,"  102, 103, 104. 

Illinois.  Attempt  to  introduce  slavery 
in,  526,  527. 

Impeachment  of  Judge  Addison  of  Penn- 
sylvania, 156,  157 ;  of  judges  of  Su- 
preme Court  of  Pennsylvania,  158, 159 ; 
of  John  Pickering,  165,  166,  168, 172, 
173 ;  of  Samuel  Chase,  168-172,  177- 
181. 

Imports.    Value  of.  from  1791-1801.  499. 

Impressment  of  sailors.  History  of,  240- 
242;  negotiations  regarding,  243,  244; 
attempt  of  King  to  settle,  245 ;  procla- 
mation of  King  of  England,  October 
16, 1807,  asserting  the  right,  270. 

Inauguration  of  Jefferson,  1805, 198, 199 ; 
of  Madison,  336. 

Indenture  Law  of  Indiana,  1803, 525 ;  law 
of  1805, 526, 527 ;  excitement  caused  by, 

w£i* 

Indiana.  Governor  and  judges  of,  ap- 
pointed to  govern  district  of  Louisiana 
23 ;  Territory  of,  formed,  122-124 , 
dispute  over  dividing  line,  133,  134; 
struggle  for  slavery  in,  524-527:  ex- 
tinction of  the  Indian  titles  to  Waoash 
valley,  529-539;  trouble  with  Tecum- 
the  and  the  Prophet,  530-532 ;  battle  of 
Tippecanoe,  533,  534 ;  attempt  to  intro- 
duce slavery  in,  524, 525 ;  "  law  concern- 
ing servants,"  525 ;  "  act  for  the  intro- 
duction of  negroes,  etc.j"  526,  527 ;  acts 
repealed,  527 ;  Indian  title  to  the  val- 
ley of  the  Wabash  extinguished,  528, 
529 ;  Tecumthe  and  Harrison,  529-532 ; 
battle  of  Tippecanoe,  532-534 ;  massa- 
cres in  the  Northwest,  536 ;  alarm  of 
the  people,  536. 

Indians.  Letter  from  Philip  Schuyler 
on  peace  with,  94;  extinguishment  of 
land  titles,  103 ;  Indian  boundary  line, 
118 ;  victory  of  Wayne  over,  118 :  trea- 
ties with,  103,  459,  529,  539;  border 
depredations  of,  530,  531,  532;  battle 
of  Tippecanoe,  533,  534;  excitement 
among  the  Creeks,  535,  536 ;  massacres 
in  the  Northwest,  536. 

Ingersoll,  Jared.  On  claims  for  Spanish 
indemnity,  35;  refuses  to  prosecute 
Pennsylvaniajudges,  159. 

Innis,  Harry.    Burr  tried  before,  67,  68. 

Instruction.  The  right  of,  asserted  by 
Virginia,  390  and  note. 

Insurance  companies,  marine.  Losses 
by  British  captures,  228. 

Intendant,  21. 

Internal  improvements.  Roads  at  State 
expense,  462,  463 ;  at  expense  of  United 
States,  465 ;  coast  surveys,  465-468 ; 
Hassler  sent  to  Europe,  468,  469;  the 
Cumberand  Eoad,  469,  470;  Delaware 


and  Chesapeake  Canal,  471,  472 ;  Con- 
gress calls  for  a  report  on  a  general 
system,  473 ;  Gallatin's  report,  473-475 ; 
report  printed,  effects  of,  475 ;  speech  of 
Porter  on,  476,  477;  the  Senate  grant 
and  to  Delaware  and  Chesapeake  Canal, 
478 ;  Union  Canal,  478, 479  ;  Erie  Canal, 
479 ;  lack  of  interstate  migration,  460, 
461. 

Interstate  commerce.  Cost  of  transporta- 
tion, 463-467, 47 2 ;  through  central  New 
York,  480 :  the  salt  trade,  480,  481 ; 
down  the  Ohio,  483 ;  at  Pittsburg,  483 ; 
down  the  Ohio,  483 ;  at  Nashville,  384 ; 
scarcity  of  money  in  the  Southwest, 
484 ;  trade  with  New  Orleans,  485 ; 
plan  for  improvement,  485,  486. 

Intrepid,  The  ketch.  Blown  up  before 
Tripoli,  206. 

Jackson,  Andrew.  Relations  with  Burr, 
in  1805,  58 ;  in  1806,  65 ;  questions 
Burr,  72 ;  at  Burr's  trial,  81. 

Jackson,  Francis  James.  English  diplo- 
matic agent  in  Copenhagen  affair,  272, 
273 ;  Minister  to  the  United  States,  349 ; 
quarrel  with  Madison,  350 ;  nicknamed. 
"  Copenhagen,"  350 ;  cause  of  the  quar- 
rel, 351-353  ;  negotiations  with,  ended, 
353 ;  his  conduct  denounced  as  a  trick, 
353-355  ;  action  of  Congress  on,  355, 356, 
357. 

Jackson,  John  G.  On  war  with  Eng- 
land, 320. 

Jason,  The.  Outrages  of,  in  N.  Y.  Har- 
bor, 267 ;  desertions  from,  268. 

Jefferson,  Thomas.  Proposes  to  amend 
the  Constitution  regarding  Louisiana, 
1-3 ;  regarding  Florida,  2 ;  takes  posses- 
sion of  Louisiana,  12;  proclamation 
under  "  Mobile  Act,"  32 ;  appoints  offi- 
cials for  Orleans  Territory,  26 ;  warned 
of  Burr's  scheme  by  Eaton,  63;  by 
Morgan,  64;  by  Daveiss,  64,65;  in- 
forms the  Cabinet,  66,  67;  action  of, 
67 ;  warnings  sent  to,  69 ;  Wilkinson's 
letter  to,  70 :  proclamation,  71 ;  epithet 
applied  to  Luther  Martin,  80 ;  motion 
to  subpoena  Jefferson,  82,  83 ;  refuses 
to  appear,  83 ;  campaign  of  1804,  result, 
197  ;  his  pleasure.  197, 198  ;  inaugural 
speech,  198,  199;  sends  ships  to  Bar- 
bary  Coast,  204 ;  appoints  Eaton  navy 
agent,  205;  gives  command  of  fleet  of 
Tripoli  to  Barren,  205 ;  goes  to  Monti- 
cello,  209;  received  despatches  from 
Europe,  209 ;  consults  Cabinet,  209, 210 ; 
receives  news  from  the  South,  210;  de- 
cides to  buy  Florida,  211,  212;  annual 
message,  212 ;  secret  message  on  Span- 
ish troubles,  213 ;  Randolph  rebels,  213, 
214;  resolutions  of  the  House  on  the 
Spanish  boundary.  214,  215;  money 
voted  to  buy  Florida,  219 ;  message  on 
commercial  relations  with  Great  Brit- 
ain. 219 :  orders  action  on  the  Chesa- 
peake affair,  262,  263 :  receives  copy  of 
Douglas's  letter  to  Mayor  of  Norfolk, 
264;  sends  Dr.  Bullus  on  the  Revenge 


INDEX. 


573 


to  England,  264;  asks  Governor  of 
Virginia  to  call  out  militia.  2G4;  re- 
ceives despatches  from  England  and 
France.  276 ;  drafts  an  embargo  mes- 
sage, 276 ;  sends  papers  and  embargo 
message  to  Congress,  276,  277 ;  em- 
bargo laid,  277,  278  •,  lays  Vermont 
under  ban,  297 ;  Gallatin  circular,  300, 
301 ;  correspondence  with  Sullivan, 
301,  302 ;  lays  towns  and  districts  un- 
der ban,  303,  304;  answers  Boston 
memorial,  313 ;  retires  from  the  presi- 
dency, 336 ;  description  of  Monticello, 
337,  338. 

Johnson,  Richard  Mentor,  420. 

Johnson,  William,  Justice  of  United 
States,  declares  Gallatin  circular  illegal, 
302. 

Journeymen.  Trade  societies  of,  511 ; 
strikes  of,  511-513;  advertisements  for, 
514. 

Judges.  Of  Northwest  Territory,  112;  of 
Mississippi  Territory,  129;  of  Penn- 
sylvania impeached,  156-160. 

Juaiciary.  Character  of,  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, 153, 154. 

Judiciary  of  the  United  States.  The  act 
of  1789, 163;  of  1801, 163, 164. 

Judge-breaking  in  Pennsylvania,  153- 
159;  in  Maryland,  162;  District  of 
Columbia,  164, 165-167 ;  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, 165,166-168,172,173;  impeach- 
ment of  Chase,  168-172, 174, 175, 177- 
181. 

Junot.   Invades  Spain,  310 ;  defeated,  312. 

Kemper,  Keuben.  Leader  of  "West  Flori- 
da insurgents,  373. 

Kentucky.  On  the  Ely  amendment  to  the 
United  States  Constitution,  46 ;  com- 
plaints against  Virginia,  96 ;  petition 
from,  to  Congress  to  admit  it  to  the 
Union,  97,  98  ;  protest  of  Virginia,  98 ; 
demands  for  protection  of  hemp,  498, 
505,  506;  forbids  English  law  to  be 
cited  in  her  courts,  418 ;  no  action  of 
Congress  on,  506 ;  another  petition 
from,  for  protection,  507-509 ;  vote  of 
thanks  to  Harrison,  534 ;  Federalists 
of,  denounce  Harrison,  534,  535. 

Key,  Philip  Barton,  177, 180. 

King,  Rufus.  Resigns  the  English  mis- 
sion, 38;  letter  of  Pickering  to,  on 
Western  land,  105;  Federalist  candi- 
date for  Vice-President,  188 ;  dinner 
to,  at  Boston,  196,  197 ;  candidate  for 
vice-presidency,  317. 

Labor.  Wages  for  unskilled,  509,  510; 
for  skilled,  510, 511 ;  organizations,  511 ; 
strike  of  the  Baltimore  tailors,  511, 512 : 
of  Philadelphia  cordwainers,  512;  or 
New  York  cordwainers,  513 ;  scarcity 
of  skilled,  514 ;  redemptioners,  514 

Lands.  Ownership  of  the  old  crown, 
89,90. 

Land.  Suffrage  dependent  on  the  owner- 
ship of,  146,  147 ;  office  holding  de- 
pendent on,  148, 149. 


Lands,  System  of  selling.  Pelatiah  Web- 
ster's plan,  96  and  note ;  plan  of  Con- 
gressional Committee,  97 ;  of  Bland, 
98,  99 ;  pledge  to  Virginia,  100 ;  ordi- 
nance of  May  20, 1785, 103-105, 109. 

Lands,  The  Western.  Claims  and  dis- 
putes regarding,  before  the  Continental 
Congress,  89-94 ;  cession  of  New  York, 
95 ;  public  interest  taken  in  the  ques- 
tion of  ownership,  95,  96 ;  Pelatiah 
Webster  on  the  use  of,  96  and  note; 
appeal  of  Congress  to  the  States,  96, 
97 ;  cessions  by  the  States,  97 ;  plan  of 
Bland  for  the  use  of,  98,  99;  petition 
from  the  soldiers,  99 ;  Virginia  cession 
accepted,  100 ;  cession  of  Massachusetts 
and  Connecticut,  112;  ordinance  of 
May  20,  1875,  for  sale  of,  103,  104; 
manner  of  selling,  104 :  at  auction,  105 ; 
"Section  16"  reserved  for  education, 
105;  squatters  driven  from,  105-107; 
survey  of,  108, 109 ;  ordinance  of  April, 
1787,  109;  sales  of,  115;  defect  of 
law  for  sale  of,  115,  116;  "Section 
29  "reserved  for  religious  bodies,  115, 
note ;  petitions  to  buy  land,  115,  117 ; 
bill  to  open  land  office  in,  117 :  terri- 
tory south  of  Ohio  formed,  117,  118: 
Hamilton's  plan  for  selling,  118 ;  act  of 
1796,120;  failure  of,  120,  121:  act  of 
1800, 124, 125 ;  claims  of  United  States 
and  Georgia,  128, 129 ;  dispute  settled, 
130-132;  Ohio  not  to  tax,  134, 135. 

Land  Office.  Opened  by  Virginia  in 
1777,  93. 

Land  Office  of  the  United  States.  Bill 
to  open,  117  ;  introduction  of,  124. 

Lansing,  John.  Declines  nomination  for 
Governor,  50. 

La  Salle.  Discovery  of  the  Mississippi 
valley,  32. 

Latrobe,  Benjamin,  79,  495. 

Laussat,  Peter  Clement  Receives  Loui- 
siana from  Spain,  10,  11 ;  delivers 
Louisiana  to  the  United  States,  13, 14 ; 
lingers  at  New  Orleans,  26. 

Law.  English  decisions,  etc.,  not  to  be 
cited  in  courts  of  New  Jersey,  Ken- 
tucky, and  Pennsylvania,  417,  418. 

Laws  of  Northwest  Territory,  113-115. 

Leander,  The  British  ship.  Shot  from, 
kills  Pierce,  236;  237 ;  ordered  out  of 
waters  of  the  United  States,  239. 

Lear,  Tobias,  Consul-General  at  Algiers, 
makes  peace  with  Tripoli,  207,  208. 

Lee,  Charles,  177, 180. 

Lee,  Henry.  Crippled  by  mob  at  Balti- 
more, 554. 

Leib,  Michael.  On  common  law  of  Eng- 
land, 418. 

Leiper,  Thomas.  Builds  a  railroad  in 
1809,  494. 

Leonidas  Fire  Society  of  Newburyport, 
555,  556. 

Leopard  takes  Berkeley's  order  to  Hamp- 
ton Roads,  257;  follows  Chesapeake 
and  attacks  her,  258 ;  takes  four  of  tho 
crew,  259 ;  excitement  over  the  coun- 
try, 259-264. 


574 


INDEX. 


Le  Berceau,  195. 

Lewis,  Meriwether.  Exploration  of 
Northwest,  142-144. 

Lewis,  Morgan.  Nominated  for  Gov- 
ernor of  New  York,  50. 

Lewiston.  Cost  of  transportation  from 
New  York  to,  463. 

Lexington.  People  of,  petition  for  pro- 
tection of  manufactures,  507-509. 

Licenses.  British,  274 ;  cost  of  trade  un- 
der, 307,  308. 

Little  Beaver.  Squatters  driven  from, 
107. 

Little  Belt,  the  English  cprvettej  403-405. 

Lingau,  James  Maccubin.  Killed  by 
mob  at  Baltimore,  554. 

Livingston  vs.  Van  Ingen.  The  steam- 
boat case,  493. 

Livingston,  Edward.  Draws  memorial 
to  Congress  for  better  government  in 
Orleans,  28 ;  on  claims  for  Spanish  in- 
demnity, 35. 

Livingston,  Kobert  K.,  Minister  to  France. 
Keplaced  by  Armstrong,  39 ;  connection 
with  Fulton  and  the  steamboat,  488-492 ; 
monopoly  of,  attacked,  492,  493. 

Lloyd,  James,  Jr.  Succeeds  J.  Q.  Adams 
in  United  States  Senate,  289. 

Loan,  "The  Gallatin,"  for  eleven  mill- 
ions. Failure  of,  454,  455. 

"Logan  Act."  Violated  by  Pickering, 
284,  285 ;  violated  by  others,  284,  note. 

Long  Island  Sound.    Survey  of,  467. 

Longstreet,  William,  487. 

Lopez,  Don  Justo.  Commander  at  Fer- 
nandina,  538 ;  captured  by  the  insur- 
gents, 538,  539. ' 

"Lots,"  102, 104. 

Louisiana,  State  of.  Orleans  Territory 
admitted  as  State  of  Louisiana,  376-379, 
540,  note;  part  of  West  Florida  an- 
nexed to,  540. 

Louisiana.  Jefferson  proposes  to  amend 
the  Constitution  regarding  the  pur- 
.  chase  of,  1-3 :  Madison's  views  on  the 
purchase,  2 ;  W.  C.  Nicholas's  views,  3 ; 
Congress  informed  of  the  purchase,  3 ; 
ratifications  of  treaty  exchanged,  3; 
provisional  government  for,  9,  10; 
money  to  pay  for,  10;  delivered  to 
France,  10, 11 ;  protest  of  Spain,  11, 12 ; 
made  over  to  United  States,  13,  14; 
history  of,  14 ;  boundary  of,  14 ;  popu- 
lation of,  15;  government  of,  under 
Spain,  15-22;  petition  for  American 
law  in,  22 ;  Territory  of  Orleans  and  Dis- 
trict of  Louisiana  formed,  23 ;  govern- 
ment for  Orleans,  23-25 ;  petition  from 
District  of  Louisiana  for  better  govern- 
ment, 29  ;  Territory  of  Louisiana  estab- 
lished, 30 ;  discovery  and  settlement  of, 
32,  33 ;  negotiations  with  Spain  for  a 
boundary,  38—41 ;  effect  of  the  purchase 
of,  on  New  England,  42 ;  on  Massachu- 
setts, 43.  44. 

Love,  William,  captain  of  The  Driver, 
defies  Jefferson's  proclamation,  254. 

Lowndes,  Thomas,  defends  South  Caro- 
lina, 518. 


Lucas,  John  B.  C.,  156, 157. 

Lynn.    Supports  the  embargo,  312,  313. 

Lynnhaven.    English  fleet  in,  254,  255, 

258,  267. 
Lyon,  Matthew.     Member  of  Congress 

from  Kentucky,  55 ;  aids  Burr,  56. 

Macdonough,  Thomas,  Commander  in 
United  States  navy.  Sent  to  Lake 
Champlain,  556. 

Macon  Bill  No.  1,  357-360 ;  lost  in  Sen- 
ate, 360. 

Macon  Bill  No.  2,  360,  361 ;  effect  on  Na- 
poleon, 367,  368. 

Madison,  James.  Views  regarding  the 
purchase  of  Louisiana,  2 ;  Marbury  vs. 
Madison,  165,  167;  frames  embargo 
message.  276;  nominated  for  presi- 
dency by  caucus  of  Virginia,  313; 
by  Congressional  caucus,  315 ;  the  cam- 
paign, 314-317 ;  elected,  317 ;  inaugura- 
tion of,  336,  337;  Erskine  affair,  339- 
842 ;  suspends  non-intercourse  with 
England,  342:  special  message,  May, 
1809,  343  •  depate  on  the  conduct  of, 
344-346 ;  Erskine  agreement  disavowed 
by  England,  348,  349;  Jackson  re- 
places Erskine,  349;  correspondence 
with  Jackson^  350-353 ;  threatens  non- 
intercourse  with  England,  369 ;  takes 
possession  of  West  Florida,  371-373: 
offer  of  Folch,  373;  asks  authority  of 
Congress  to  hold, 373 ;  authoritygiven, 
374,  375 ;  assures  Congress  the  French 
decrees  are  repealed,  394;  refuses  to 
accept  resignation  of  Gallatin,  400 ;  in- 
vites Monroe  to  become  Secretary  of 
State,  400;  dismisses  Smith,  400,  401; 
calls  special  session  of  Congress,  411 ; 
buys  Henry  letters,  445 ;  sends  them  to 
Congress,  446 ;  story  that  he  was  coerced 
by  Clay,  448,  449 ;  approves  an  embar- 
go, 450;  nominated  for  presidency, 
456 ;  war  message,  456,  457 ;  war  vote, 
457 ;  recalls  Matthews  from  St.  Mary's, 
539 ;  sends  Governor  Mitchell  to  Ame- 
lia Island,  539,  540. 

"  Madison's  Mob,"  555. 

Madison,  Eev.  James,  468. 

Madrid.    Eevolt  against  Napoleon,  310. 

Manufactures.  Motion  that  members  of 
Congress  wear  home  -  manufactured 
goods,  299 ;  demand  for  protection  to, 
496—498 ;  rise  of,  under  the  embargo, 
499-501 ;  societies  for  the  encourage- 
ment of,  500,  501 ;  rage  for  American- 
made  goods,  502, 503 ;  charters  for  com- 
panies, 504,  505;  condition  of,  in  the 
States,  504,  505;  renewed  demand  for 
protection,  505,  506 ;  Gallatin's  report 
on,  506 ;  census  of,  ordered,  507 ;  de- 
mands for  protection,  507 ;  memorial 
from  Kentucky,  507-509. 

Manufacturing,  societies  to  encourage. 
Union  at  Baltimore,  500 ;  South  Caro- 
lina Homespun  Company,  500  ;  Phila- 
delphia premium,  500 ;  Petersburg 
manufacturing,  500:  Culpepper  So- 
ciety, 500 ;  Patriotic  Society,  501. 


INDEX. 


575 


Marbois,  Barbe.  On  the  American  claim 
to  West  Florida,  39. 

Marbury,  William.  The  "  Midnight 
Judge,"  164,  165;  commission  with- 
held, 165;  Marbury  vs.  Madison,  165, 
167. 

Marietta.  Burr's  boats  at,  65;  seizure 
of,  69,  72 ;  Government  of  Northwest 
Territory  organized  at,  113 ;  land  office 
at,  124. 

Marshall,  Humphry.  Duel  with  Henry 
Clay,  502. 

Marshall,  John,  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court.  Burr  brought  before, 
76,  79 ;  decision  on  overt  act  of  treason, 
85;  sends  Burr  to  Ohio  for  trial.  86; 
burned  in  effigy,  87 :  decision  in  Mar- 
bury  vs.  Madison,  167. 

Martin,  Daniel.  Deserter  from  Melam- 
pus,  255 ;  enlists  on  Chesapeake,  255 ; 
taken  from  Chesapeake,  259. 

Martin,  Luther.  At  Burr's  trial,  79,  80 ; 
burned  in  effigy,  87 ;  counsel  for  Chase, 
177 ;  speech,  180. 

Maryland.  On  the  Ely  amendment  to  the 
United  States  Constitution,  46 ;  on  the 
claims  of  the  States  to  Western  land,  92 ; 
refuses  to  sign  articles  of  confederation, 
93 ;  her  position  defined,  93 ;  her  quar- 
rel with  Virginia,  93,  94;  stay  law, 
416. 

Massachusetts.  Proposes  a  constitutional 
amendment,  44,  45 ;  action  of  the  State 
on,  46, 47 ;  rejects  twelfth  amendment, 
187;  attempts  to  elect  presidential 
electors  by  general  ticket,  188,  189; 
election  of  1804  in,  194, 195;  Governor 
Sullivan  and  the  flour  certificates,  301, 
302 ;  opposition  to  repeal  of  embargo, 
312,  313;  Jefferson  answers  Boston 
memorial,  313 ;  opposition  of  towns  to 
Force  Act,  327-329;  General  Court 
pass  a  personal  liberty  bill,  329,  330 ; 
call  for  a  convention  of  New  England 
States,  330,  331 ;  petitions  from  people 
of,  to  Congress,  332  j  Governor  refuses 
to  call  out  militia  in  1812,  545 ;  cam- 
paign of  1811,  420-423 ;  triumph  of  Re- 
publicans, 422 ;  Varnum  sent  to  United 
States  Senate,  422,  423;  Districting 
Act  [the  gerrymander],  452, 453 ;  salary 
of  members  of  General  Court  paid  out 
of  State  Treasury,  453;  effect  of,  453, 
454 ;  Federalists  carry  the  House,  455 ; 
on  Erie  Canal,  479. 

Massacres  in  the  Northwest,  536 ;  flight 
of  the  people  of  Indiana,  536. 

Masters,  Josiah.  Leads  revolt  against 
congressional  caucus,  314. 

Matagorda  Bay.    La  Salle  at,  32. 

Matthews,  George,  Governor  of  Missis- 
sippi Territory.  Not  confirmed,  129; 
appointed  agent  to  receive  East  Florida; 
375 ;  goes  to  St.  Mary's,  537 ;  his  con- 
duct there,  537-539 ;  is  recalled,  539. 

McKean,  J.  B.  On  claims  for  Spanish 
indemnity,  35. 

McKean,  Thomas,  161, 162. 

McKee,  Colonel  John,  537. 


Mclntosh,  John  H.    Leader  of  the  rebels  I 
in  East  Florida,  538-540. 

Mead,  Cowles,  Governor  of  Mississippi 
Territory,  74;  summons  Burr  to  sur- 
render, 74;  proclamation  for  rearrest 
of  Burr,  75. 

"Mediterranean  Fund,"  203,  204;  con- 
tinued, 214,  299. 

Melampus,  The,  254,  255 ;  sailors  desert, 
255 ;  take  service  on  Chesapeake,  255 ; 
water-casks  seized  at  Hampton,  260. 

Menzons,  Jonas,  106. 

Mercerstown.  Squatters  driven  from, 
107. 

Merchants.  Appeal  to  Congress  for  pro- 
tection against  British  seizures,  229 ; 
action  of  Congress,  230,  231. 

Merchantmen.  Forbidden  to  sail  armed, 
218. 

Mercury,  The  case  of  ship.  223,  224. 

Merino  sheep.  Eage  for  the  importation 
of,  503,  504. 

Merry,  Anthony.  English  Minister  to 
the  United  States,  54 ;  Burr  seeks  aid 
of,  in  his  conspiracy,  54-56;  letter  re- 
garding Burr,  55,  note;  alarmed  at 
publicity  of  Burr's  scheme,  61 ;  Bun- 
reports  to.  61 ;  recalled,  63. 

Message.  Annual,  1803,  3 ;  annual,  De- 
cember, 1, 1806,  76 ;  special,  relating  to 
Burr,  77. 

Michaux,  Andre",  142. 

Michigan.  Territory  of,  formed,  137; 
Hull  made  Governor  of,  137 ;  burning 
of  Detroit,  138, 139 ;  new  city  laid  out, 
139,  140;  population  of  territory,  140, 
141 ;  farm  life  in,  140, 141  -settlement 
of  land  claims  in,  142 ;  on  Erie  Canal, 
479  •  slavery  in,  527, 528. 

Michilimackinaw,  140. 

"  Midnight  Judges,"  164, 165, 167. 

Migration  westward,  460;  lines  of  mi- 
gration, 460,  461 ;  efforts'of,  461,  462. 

Milan.    Decree  of,  292,  293. 

Militia.  Refusal  of  Governor  of  Con- 
necticut to  detach,  544,  545;  of  Gov- 
ernor of  Massachusetts,  545 ;  of  Rhode 
Island,  546. 

Milledgeville,  540. 

Mills  and  factories,  504,  505. 

Milnor,  William,  451. 

Mingo  Bottom.  Squatters  driven  from, 
107, 108. 

Mississippi  Territory.  Acting  Governor 
gathers  militia  to  oppose  Burr,  74; 
Burr  surrenders  to,  75;  trial  in^  75; 
escape  from,  75 ;  proclamation  of  act- 
ing Governor,  75 ;  Burr's  letter  to  Gov- 
ernor, 75 ;  territory  of,  formed,  129 ;  offi- 
cers of,  129;  character  of  people,  129, 
130;  protest  of  Georgia  against,  130; 
part  of  West  Florida  annexed  to,  540. 

Mississippi  river.  Explored  by  Z.  M. 
Pike,  144. 

Mitchell,  D.  B.,  Governor  of  Georgia. 
Sent  to  Amelia  Island,  539 ;  seizes  Eng- 
lish ships  there,  540. 

Mitchill,  Samuel  L.,  Dr.,  175. 

Mob.    At  Baltimore,  553 ;  destruction  of 


576 


INDEX. 


the  Federal  Republican  office,  553 ;  riot 
renewed,  554 ;  murder  of  Lingan,  554 ; 
effect  in  New  England,  554,  555 ;  reso- 
lution condemning,  555,  556. 

"  Mobile  Act."  The  law,  31,  note ;  pro- 
test of  Yrujo,  31,  32 ;  proclamation  of 
Jefferson,  32. 

Mobile.    Spanish  troops  at,  210. 

"  Mobtown/'  555. 

Mohawk  river.    Transportation  on,  480. 

Money.    Lack  of,  in  the  Southwest,  484. 

Monroe,  James.  Sent  to  France,  37 ;  joint 
commissioner  with  Pinckney  to  treat 
with  Spain,  37 ;  mission  delayed,  37,  38 ; 
Minister  to  England,  38 ;  joins  Pinck- 
ney at  Madrid,  38;  negotiates  with 
Cevallos  on  Spanish  troubles,  38-41 ; 
returns  to  England,  41 ;  his  journey  to 
Ohio  country,  1786,  109;  brings  the 
question  of  W  estern  States  before  Con- 
gress, 110;  mission  to  England,  245- 
247 ;  makes  a  treaty  with  England,  249- 
251 ;  rejected  by  Jefferson?  251-253 ; 
informed  of  Chesapeake  affair  by  Can- 
ning, 268  j  receives  despatch  from  Bul- 
lus,  268 ;  interview  with  Canning,  269 ; 
returns  to  United  States,  269;  270 ;  nomi- 
nated for  presidency  by  Virginia  cau- 
cus, 314 ;  invited  to  become  Secretary 
of  State,  400 ;  accepts,  400,  401 ;  deal- 
ings with  Foster,  406,  407;  answers 
Foster,  410 ;  asserts  that  the  decrees  are 
repealed,  410,  411. 

Monticello.  Home  of  Jefferson,  209 ;  de-' 
scription  of.  337,  338. 

Montreal.  The  trade  centre  for  northern 
New  York,  New  Hamsphire.  and  Ver- 
mont, 464,  465 ;  plan  to  attack,  556. 

Moore,  Joshua,  468. 

Morey,  Samuel,  487. 

Morgan,  Colonel  George  N.  Burr's  con- 
versation with,  63;  warns  Jefferson, 
64,  69,  84. 

Morocco.    War  with,  201. 

Morris,  Commodore,  on  the  Barbary  coast, 
201. 

Morris,  Gouverneur,  220 ;  attempts  to  ar- 
range impressment  trouble,  240,  241. 

Mulattoes  from  the  West  Indies  excluded 
from  the  United  States,  517. 

Municipal  Government  of  New  Orleans, 
19,  20. 

Murat,  Joachim.  At  Madrid,  310 ;  seizes 
American  ships  at  Naples,  366. 

Nairne,  John,  239. 

Nantucket.  People  of,  refused  leave  to 
import  food,  303. 

Naples.  Murat  seizes  United  States  ships 
at,  366. 

Napoleon.  Ratifies  Louisiana  treaty,  3 ; 
asked  to  arbitrate  in  the  boundary 
dispute,  211,  212;  orders  trade  with 
San  Domingo  stopped,  218,  219 ;  anger 
of,  218,  219;  the  trade  stopped,  219; 
Berlin  decree,  249,  250;  enforces  the 
decree,  271,  272 ;  threatens  Poland  and 
Denmark,  272;  at  Eylau,  Friedland, 
and  Tilflit,  272 ;  Milan  decree,  292, 293 ; 


attacks  Spain,  309, 310 ;  dethrones  Car- 
los and  Ferdinand,  310 ;  Bayonne  de- 
cree, 310,  311 ;  makes  Joseph  Bona- 
garte  king,  312;  French  reverses  in 
pain,  312;  receives  Non-intercourse 
Act,  363 ;  refuses  to  revoke  decrees,  363, 
364 ;  asked  to  name  terms  of  repeal, 
364 ;  orders  seizure  of  American  ships, 
366 ;  ships  seized  in  Spain  and  Italy, 
366 ;  issues  Eambouillet  decree,  367 ; 
receives  copy  of  Macon  Act,  367,  368 : 
restores  limited  trade  with  United 
States,  368 ;  promises  to  repeal  decrees, 
November  1,  1810,  368;  interest  in 
Fulton's  steamboat,  488,  489  •  receives 
Non-intercourse  Act  of  March  2,  1811, 
409;  releases  some  American  ships, 
409 ;  speech  to  the  deputies  of  the 
Hanse  Towns,  425 ;  speech  to  the  Paris 
bankers,  425,  426. 

Nashville.  Trade  at,  484 ;  lack  of  money 
at,  484 ;  trade  with  Natchez  and  New 
Orleans,  485;  plan  to  improve,  485, 
486;  physicians'  fees  at,  510;  Bun- 
visits  Jackson  at,  58,  65,  72;  Bun- 
leaves,  72, 

Natchitoches.  Wilkinson  receives  Burr's 
letter  at,  70 ;  Pike  at,  145. 

Naturalization  Law.  Denounced  by  Fed- 
eralists, 265,  266. 

Nautilus,  The,  202-206. 

Navigation  Act,  or  Macon's  Bill,  No.  1, 
357-360. 

Navy.  Debate  on  the  bill  to  equip  the, 
439,  440 ;  character  of  seamen  and  offi- 
cers, 547,  548 ;  number  of  officers  and 
men,  548 ;  number  of  vessels,  548,  note. 

Negroes.  Free  negroes  from  San  Do- 
mingo landed  at  Wilmington  and  New 
York,  516;  alann  produced  by,  516, 
517 ;  exclusion  law,  517. 

Neutral  strip.  Proposition  of  the  United 
States  for  a  neutral  strip  between  Loui- 
siana and  the  possessions  of  Spain,  38, 
39,40. 

Neutral  trade.  Rule  of  1756,  219,  220; 
orders  in  council  and  French  decrees, 
220-223:  direct  trade,  222-224,  225; 
of  the  United  States,  225 ;  blockades, 
226 ;  case  of  the  Essex,  226 ;  the  Enoch, 
the  Rowena,  226 ;  effect  of  decisions, 
227-229 ;  resolutions  in  Congress  on, 
230,  231 ;  debate  on  Grey's  resolutions, 
231-235 ;  Non-importation  Act,  235, 
236 ;  murder  of  Pierce,  236-240 ;  orders 
in  council,  November  4,  1806,  Berlin 
decree,  249,  250 ;  oders  in  council,  Jan- 
uary 7,  1807,  251 ;  orders  in  council, 
November  11, 1807,  Milan  decree,  272- 
274 :  cost  of  trade,  307,  808. 

New  Bedford.  Collector  of,  removed, 
303. 

New  England.  Opposition  to  purchase 
of  Louisiana,  42 ;  sentiment  of  secession 
in,  43;  opposition  to  Force  Act,  327- 
332;  turnpikes  in,  463;  opposition  to 
war,  550-552;  refusal  to  detach  the 
militia;  543-546. 

New  Fehciana.  District  of  West  Florida, 


INDEX. 


577 


869;  revolution  in,  369:  convention, 
370 ;  reforms  demanded,  370 ;  State 
Government  formed,  371 ;  offers  an- 
nexation, 371 ;  proclamation  of  Madi- 
son, 371 ;  Claiborne  takes  control,  371, 
872. 

New  Granada,  369. 

New  Hampshire.  Petitions  from  towns 
in.  for  repeal  of  embargo,  332 ;  turn- 
pikes in,  463;  encourages  manufact- 
ures, 503. 

New  Haven.  Conference  of,  1804;  con- 
stitutional reforms  demanded,  191, 192 ; 
people  of,  denounce  Force  Act,  332. 

New  Jersey.  On  the  land  claims  of  the 
States,  92,  93 ;  protests  against  accept- 
ing Virginia  cession,  99 ;  Constitution 
of,  147,  150;  women  .vote  in,  147; 
struggle  for  further  limitations,  150, 
151 ;  English  decisions  not  to  be  cited 

1  in  her  courts,  417 ;  on  Erie  Canal,  479 ; 
attacks  the  Livingston-Fulton  monop- 
oly, 492,  493. 

New  Orleans.  Delivery  of,  to  France, 
10, 11 ;  Americans  keep  order  in,  11 ; 
Claiborne  receives  Louisiana  from 
France  at,  13,  14 ;  troops  enter,  13 ; 
description  of  the  city,  15-20 ;  govern- 
ment of,  19,  20 ;  petition  of  the  mer- 
chants for  American  law,  22 ;  Spanish 
troops  at,  27,  28 ;  hatred  of  Americans 
at.  58 ;  Burr  at,  58,  59 ;  Ogden  at,  70 ; 
Wilkinson  at,  73 ;  begins  to  arrest  con- 
spirators, 74;  Ogden  set  free  and 
rearrested,  74 ;  "Wilkinson  attached  for 
contempt,  74. 

New  Orleans  Packet.  Seized  by  the 
French,  408 ;  protest  of  Eussell,  408. 

New  York  city.  Funeral  of  Hamilton, 
52,  53;  excitement  over  murder  of 
Pierce,  237,  238 ;  aifair  of  Cambrian 
and  Leander,  246,  247 ;  embargo 
evaded  at,  279 ;  effects  of  embargo, 
289,  290,  415;  debtors  in,  415;  scenes 
on  receipt  of  news  of  embargo  of  1812, 
451. 

New  York,  State  of.  Political  condition 
of,  in  1804,49;  Burr  and  Lewis  nomi- 
nated for  Governor,  50 ;  the  contest,  51 ; 
defeat  of  Burr,  51 :  death  of  Hamilton, 
52, 53 ;  on  the  land  claims  and  disputes 
of  the  States,  94,  95 ;  cedes  her  claims 
to  Congress,  95;  limitation  of  fran- 
chise, 147 ;  petitions  from  counties  for 
repeal  of  emoargo,  332, 333 ;  increase  of 
counties  from  1790  to  1812,  461 ;  move- 
ment of  population  into,  461 ;  turn- 
pikes in,  463 ;  Montreal  the  trade 
centre  of  northern,  464,  465 ;  cost  of 
transportation  from,  to  Canada,  464. 
465 ;  Erie  Canal,  478  ;  State  asks  aid  of 
Congress  and  the  States,  478,  479 ;  re- 
fusal of  the  States,  479  ;  refusal  of  Con- 
gress, 479 ;  trade  of  Mohawk  valley, 
480 ;  salt  trade  of,  480,  481 ;  grants 
monopoly  to  Livingston,  488 ;  to  Liv- 
ingston and  Fulton,  489 ;  confirms  it, 
490,  491 ;  declared  constitutional,  493 ; 
Fulton's  torpedo,  489 ;  the  steamboat, 

TOL.III. — 38. 


490-493 ;  cost  of  travel  between  New 
York  city  and  Philadelphia,  492  and 
note;  strike  and  trial  of  cordwainers 
in,  513 ;  scarcity  of  stone-cutters  in, 
514. 

Nicholas,  W.  C.  On  the  purchase  of 
Louisiana,  3  ;  at  Burr's  trial,  81. 

Nicholson,  Joseph,  177 ;  explains  Jeffer- 
son's wishes  in  regard  to  Florida,  213  ; 
resolutions  on  trade,  230. 

Non-intercourse  Act  of  May  1,  1810. 
History  of,  357-361  ;  reaches  Paris, 
367  ;  effect  on  Napoleon,  367,  368. 

Non-intercourse  Act  of  March  1,  1809, 
335,  336 ;  the  Erskine  affair,  322,  323, 
339-342  ;  the  law  suspended  as  to  Eng- 
land, 342 ;  debate  on  right  to  suspend, 
344-346 ;  rejoicings  over  suspension, 
346.  347;  renewal,  349;  repealed,  361; 
laid  before  Napoleon,  363 ;  refuses  to 
consider  it,  363,  364. 

Non-importation.  Kesolutions  offered  by 
Gregg,  230 ;  partial,  by  Nicholson,  230 ; 
debate  on,  231-236  ;  act  passed,  236. 

Non-intercourse  Act  of  March  2,  1811. 
Bill  reported,  391 ;  motion  of  Ran- 
dolph, 392 ;  debate  on,  392  393 ;  bill 
recommittedj  393 ;  new  bill  reported, 
394;  discussion  put  off,  394;  evidence 
of  repeal  of  French  decrees  sent  to  Con- 
gress, 394 ;  two  amendments  moved, 
395 ;  debate,  395 ;  filibustering,  395, 
396 ;  previous  question  moved,  397 ; 
debate  cut  short  and  the  bill  passed, 
397 ;  provisions  of,  398,  399 ;  received 
by  Napoleon,  409 ;  effect  on  him,  409  ; 
working  of  the  law,  423  ;  effect  on  the 
merchants,  424 ;  petitions  for  an  extra 
session  of  Congress,  424 ;  answer  of 
Madison,  424 ;  efforts  to  suspend,  549. 

Norfolk.  Petitions  from,  to  Congress ;  ex- 
citement in,  over  Chesapeake,  259,  260 ; 
Captain  Douglas  threatens,  260,  261 ; 
answer  of  the  Mayor,  261. 

Norristown.    Squatters  driven  from,  107. 

North  Carolina.  Officeholding  qualifi- 
cations, 148 ;  Stay  Law,  476 ;  proposes 
a  constitutional  amendment,  517,  518. 

North,  George.  Deserter  from  the  Hali- 
fax and  from  the  Chesapeake,  256 ;  in- 
cluded in  Berkeley's  order,  257. 

Northwest.  Explorations  in,  by  Lewis 
and  Clarke,  142-144. 

Northwest  Territory.  Slavery  in,  521, 
522 ;  attempts  to  introduce  slavery  un- 
der the  ordinance  of  1787, 522-524 ;  ac- 
quisition of,  by  Congress,  89-100;  or- 
dinance for  government  of,  100-102; 
for  sale  of  land  in,  102-105 ;  squatters 
driven  from,  105-107 ;  question  of  di- 
viding, 110 ;  plan  for  temporary  gov- 
ernment, 111 ;  Ohio  Company,  111,  112 ; 
ordinance  of  1787, 112  and  note ;  officers 
of,  112,  113;  organization  of  govern- 
ment of,  113;  laws  of,  113-115;  land 
sales  in,  115 ;  section  29  reserved,  115, 
note ;  Hamilton's  plan  for  sale  of  land, 
118;  Indian  boundary,  118;  act  of 
1796  for  sale  of  land  in,  119,  120;  no 


578 


INDEX. 


sales,  120,121  -spread  of  population  in, 
121 ;  becomes  Territory  of  second  grade, 
121  ;  Harrison  sent  to  Congress,  121 ; 
Territory  divided,  123, 124. 

"  O-grab-me."  Name  for  the  embargo, 
291. 

"  O-grab-me  Pets,1'  301. 

Ogden,  Peter  V.  A  confederate  of  Burr, 
63 ;  starts  West,  69 ;  reaches  New  Or- 
leans, 70 ;  arrested  at  Fort  Adams,  74 ; 
released  by  court  and  rearrested,  74; 
released  at  Baltimore,  79. 

Ohio.  On  the  .Ely  amendment  of  United 
States  Constitution,  46 ;  act  for  sup- 
pression of  conspiracies,  68,  69 ;  Gov- 
ernor seizes  Burr's  boats,  69 ;  militia 
called  out,  72 ;  flight  of  Blennerhasset 
from,  72 ;  formation  of  State  Govern- 
ment, 133,  134;  condition  of  admit- 
tance, 134,  135,  136;  stay  laws,  416; 
population  in,  461  ;  on  Erie  Canal, 
479. 

Ohio  Canal,  475,  478. 

Ohio  Company,  111,  115. 

Ohio  river  settlements,  461. 

Ohio  Valley.    Trade  of,  481. 

Orders  in  council,  1793-1800,  219-223- 
decree  of  Berlin,  249,  250 ;  orders  of 
January  7,  1807,  251 ;  orders  of  April 
26, 1809 ;  of  November  11,  1807 ;  his- 
tory of,  272-274 ;  promulgated,  274 ;  re- 
port of  their  issue  reaches  United  States, 
275 ;  defended  by  the  ministry,  307 ; 
petitions  for  repeal,  307. 

Ordinance.  Of  April  23,  1784,100-102; 
plans  to  amend,  110,  111;  of  May  10, 
1784,  and  May  20, 1785,  for  sale  of  land, 
102-104 ;  of  1787,  111,  112,  note ;  author- 
ship of,  112,  note ;  meaning  of  slavery 
prohibition,  521,  522 ;  attempts  to  se- 
cure a  suspension  of  Article  VI,  523, 
524,  525-528. 

Orleans.  Territory  of,  23 ;  debate  on  gov- 
ernment for,  23-25 ;  Clai borne  Governor 
of,  26 ;  other  officers  of,  26 ;  discontent 
in,  26 ;  commissions  from,  to  Congress, 
28 ;  council  refuse  to  serve,  28 ;  me- 
morial to  Congress  for  better  govern- 
ment, 28,  29 :  made  a  Territory  of  the 
second  grade,  30 ;  delegates  from,  dis- 
satisfied, 30,  31  i  applies  for  admission 
as  a  State,  376 ;  debate  on,  376-378 ; 
bounds  of  State  of  Louisiana,  378 ;  con- 
ditions of  admission,  379;  admitted, 
879 ;  part  of  West  Florida  annexed  to, 
540. 

Ormsbee,  Elijah,  487. 

Oswego.    Embargo-breaking  at,  305. 

Otis,  Harrison  Gray,  331. 

Paduco,  32. 

Paine,  Thomas.  Pamphlet"  Public  Good," 

96 ;  his  pamphlet  "  Plain  Facts,"  97. 
Pamphlets.     On  the  commercial  troubles 

of  1806,  235,  236 ;  on  the  Chesapeake 

affair,  264,  265;  on  the  United  States 

Bank,  380,  note. 
Parker,  Joseph,  115. 


Parliament.  Orders  in  council  defended 
and  opposed,  307. 

Parsons,  bamucl  Holden.  Judge  of  North- 
west Territory,  112. 

Pascagoula  river,  31. 

Passmore,  Thomas.  Punished  for  con- 
tempt, 157, 158 ;  complains  to  Legisla- 
ture of  Pennsylvania,  158;  judges  im- 
peached, 159. 

Patent  merchants,  301. 

Patterson,  Robert,  468. 

Payne,  John  Howard,  553. 

Peace,  The  Friends  of.  Convention  called 
to  nominate  candidates  for  President 
and  Vice-President,  552,  553. 

Pennsylvania.  On  the  Ely  amendment 
of  United  States  Constitution,  46  ;  dis- 
pute with  Virginia  over  Western  land, 
95,  98 ;  the  Triangle,  112,  note ;  suffrage 
in,  147-149 ;  character  of  judiciary,  153, 
154;  judge-breaking  in,  153,  160;  im- 
peachment of  Judge  Addison,  157  j  of 
Judges  Shippen,  Yeates,  and  Smith, 
159 ;  attempt  to  amend  Constitution  of, 
160-162;  petitions  from,  for  repeal  of 
embargo,  333;  resolution  on  the  re- 
charter  of  United  States  Bank,  388 ; 
attempt  to  pass  a  stay  law  in,  417  ; 
forbids  English  decisions  to  be  cited 
in  her  courts,  418;  cost  of  transporta- 
tion in,  463,  4&1,  482;  Duane  on,  481, 
482;  effect  of  his  efforts,  482,  483  ;  en- 
courages domestic  manufactures,  502 ; 
encourages  importation  of  Merinos,  503. 

Pennsylvania  Railroad.  492. 

Percival,  Chancellor  of  Exchequer.  Urges 
retaliation  for  Berlin  decree,  273,  274. 

Perdido  river,  14,  31,  38,  39. 

Peters,  Richard,  District  Judge.  Attempt 
to  impeach,  171, 172. 

Petition  from  the  Continental  soldiers 
for  Western  lands,  99. 

Petitions  to  Congress.  For  United  States 
law  on  Louisiana,  22 ;  for  a  better  gov- 
ernment for  Orleans,  28,  29 ;  from  Dis- 
trict of  Louisiana,  29 ;  by  merchants, 
229 ;  for  protection  to  young  industries, 
495,  496-498,  505,  506  ;  from  Kentucky 
for  protection,  505,  506,  507-509 ;  from 
Northwest  Territory  for  introduction  of 
slavery,  522-525. 

Philadelphia,  Brandywine,  and  New 
London  Turnpike  Company,  475. 

Philadelphia.  Embargo  evaded  at,  280 ; 
sailors  demand  relief,  290;  scenes  at, 
on  the  receipt  of  news  of  embargo  of 
1812,  451 ;  steamboat  at,  491, 492 ;  ferry 
to  Camden.  493;  Leiper's  railway  at, 
494;  manufactures  at,  504,  505;  strike 
and  trial  of  cordwaincrs  in.  511,512. 

Philadelphia,  The.  Captured  off  Tripoli, 
202,  203 ;  burned  by  Decatur,  203. 

Phoenix.  The  steamboat  of  John  Ste- 
vens, 491,  492. 

Physicians.    Fees  of,  510. 

Pickering,  John,  District  Judge  of  New 
Hampshire.  Impeached,  165,  166,  168, 
172, 173. 

Pickering,  Timothy.    On  the  purchase 


INDEX. 


579 


of  Louisiana,  8,  9;  his  "partnership" 
theory  of  the  Union,  8 ;  plans  a  North- 
ern confederacy,  48;  efforts  to  elect 
Burr,  50, 51 ;  on  Western  lands,  99-105 ; 
correspondence  with  Eose,  283,  284; 
letter  to  Governor  Sullivan,  287;  de- 
feats J.  Q.  Adams  for  Senator,  287- 
289 ;  is  defeated  by  Varnum,  422,  423. 

Pierce,  John.  Killed  by  shot  from  Le- 
ander,  236,  237 ;  excitement  over,  239- 
240. 

Pike,  Zebulon  Montgomery,  59 ;  explora- 
tions of,  144,  145. 

Pinckney,  Charles.  Minister  to  Spain, 
36 ;  negotiations  with  Cevallos,  36  ; 
threatens  war,  36, 37  ;  joined  with  Mon- 
roe in  new  negotiations,  37-41 ;  suc- 
ceeded by  Bowdoin,  41. 

Pinckney,  Charles  C.,  Federalist  candi- 
date for  President,  188,  317. 

Pinckney,  Thomas.  Made  Major-Gen- 
eral, 546. 

Pinkney,  William,  United  States  Minis- 
ter at  London.  Asks  what  orders  in 
council  are  in  force,  364;  answered, 
364,  365 :  announces  the  conditions  of 
repeal  of  French  decrees  to  Lord  Wel- 
lesley,  365 ;  hears  that  the  Berlin  and 
Milan  decrees  are  repealed,  365,  368; 
answer  of  Wellesley,  369 ;  asks  audience 
of  leave,  401. 

Pitkin,  Timothy,  Jr.  Beads  Captain 
Chew's  letter  to  House  of  Eepresenta- 
tives,  449. 

Pittsburg.    Business  condition  of,  483. 

Pittstown.     On  the  embargo,  311. 

Plundering  Act,  423,  424. 

Pogge,  British  armed  schooner,  fires  on 
Passamaquoddy,  254. 

Poindexter,  George.  Prosecutes  Burr  in 
Mississippi  Territory,  75. 

Polk,  William,  547. 

Polly.   The  case  of,  223. 

Population  of  Louisiana,  15 ;  movement 
of,  westward,  460,  461. 

Porter,  Peter  Buell,  420 ;  on  pur  foreign 
relations,  432,  433 ;  brings  in  embargo 
bill,  450 ;  sketch  of,  475,  476 ;  speech 
on  internal  improvements,  476,  477. 

Portland.    ES'ect  of  embargo  in,  415. 

Portugal.  Invaded  by  French,  310 ;  roy- 
al family  flee  to  Brazil,  310. 

Potomac.  Toasted  as  the  boundary  of  a 
Northern  confederacy,  43. 

Preble,  Commodore.  Sent  to  Barbary 
coast,  201 ;  attacks  Tripoli,  205,  206 ; 
relieved  by  Ban-on,  206. 

Precedents.  English  decisions,  etc.,  not 
to  be  cited  in  courts,  417,  418. 

Presidency.  Candidates  for,  in  1804, 188 ; 
in  1808,  313-317. 

President,  The  frigate.  Aifair  with  Lit- 
tle Belt,  403-405. 

"  Presidential  Bulls,"  301. 

Previous  question.  History  of  its  intro- 
duction into  the  rules  of  the  House  of 
Kepresentatives,  395-397  and  note,  398. 

Prevost,  Governor-General  of  Canada, 
558 ;  concludes  an  armistice,  560. 


Prevost,  J.  B,,  Judge  of  District  Court 
of  Orleans,  26. 

Printing  p_ress.    One  at  Lexington,  113. 

Proclamations.  Of  Jefferson  in  pursu- 
ance of  Mobile  Act,  32;  regarding 
Burr's  conspiracy,  71 ;  delay  in  reach- 
ing the  Western  forts,  72 ;  of  Cowles 
Mead  for  arrest  of  Burr,  75 ;  ordering 
Leander,  Cambrian,  and  Driver  out  of 
waters  of  the  United  States,  239 ;  orders 
British  armed  vessels  to  leave  our  har- 
bors, 262,  263 ;  by  King  of  England, 
October  16,  1807,  asserting  right  of 
impressment,  270;  recalling  English 
seamen  from  under  foreign  flags,  270- 
277 ;  of  Jefferson  concerning  Vermont, 
297 ;  of  Madison  suspending  non-inter- 
course, 342;  renewing  non-intercouse, 
349 ;  threatening  non-intercourse  under 
Act  of  May  1,  1810,  369;  concerning 
West  Florida,  371,  372 ;  of  war  with 
England,  458. 

Proclamation  line,  90. 

Procureur  General,  19. 

Produce.  Export  of  American,  498,  499 ; 
of  foreign,  499. 

Prophets.  Eise  of,  among  the  Southern 
Indians,  535,  536. 

Prophet,  The.  Sketch  of,  530 ;  his  town 
at  Tippecanoe  Creek,  530,  531 ;  Harri- 
son marches  against,  533- the  battle 
with,  533,  534 ;  returns  to  Tippecanoe, 
535. 

Protection  to  manufactures.  Petitions 
for,  496-498 ;  action  of  the  people,  499- 
502 ;  of  the  States,  502,  503 ;  of  Ken- 
tucky, 505,  506;  action  of  Congress, 
606 ;  of  the  people,  507 ;  petition  from 
Lexington,  509. 

Protection  certificates  for  American  sail- 
ors, 240,  241. 

Punishment  of  crime  in  Northwest  Ter- 
ritory, 113-115. 

Quadroons  in  New  Orleans,  18. 

Qualifications  of  voters,  146,  147;  of 
office-holders,  147-149. 

Quincy,  Josiah,  Speech  on  the  admis- 
sion of  Louisiana,  376,  377. 

Eafts.  Lumber,  sent  into  Canada  in  de- 
fiance of  the  embargo,  304,  305. 

Kailroad.  Number  of  trains  on  the  Penn- 
sylvania, between  Philadelphia  and 
New  York  city,  492. 

Eailroads.  Early  roads  in  the  United 
States,  494,  495 ;  description  of  one  by 
Latrobe.  495 ;  Oliver  Evans  on,  495. 

Eambouillet     Decree  of,  367. 

Earns.  Bounty  for,  503 ;  cost  of  Merino, 
504. 

Bamsey,  Dennis,  164. 

Eandolph,  Edmund,  80. 

Eandolph,  John.  On  a  government  for 
Orleans  and  Louisiana,  30 ;  calls  for  in- 
formation regarding  the  movements  of 
Burr,  77 ;  foreman  of  jury  at  Burr's 
trial,  81 ;  returns  indictment  against 
Burr,  83 ;  on  using  land  sales  revenue 


580 


INDEX. 


to  build  roads,  136 ;  manager  at  trial  of 
Chase,  177, 180, 181 ;  moves  an  amend- 
ment to  Federal  Constitution,  182;  op- 
poses the  purchase  of  Florida,  213-215  • 
on  the  embargo,  278 ;  on  suspension  of 
non-intercourse,  344,  345;  on  the  non- 
intercourse  bill,  392,  396 ;  quarrels  with 
Eppes,  396;  is  challenged,  396;  on 
standing  army,  433,  435 ;  on  the  use  of 
the  army,  437,  438. 

Ranges,  104  and  note;  survey  of  The 
Siren,  108, 109. 

Raritan.  The  steamboat,  491,  492;  ex- 
plosion of  the  boiler,  491. 

Katford,  Jenkin.  Deserts  from  the  Hali- 
fax and  enters  on  the  Chesapeake,  256 ; 
included  in  Berkeley's  order,  257 ; 
taken  from  Chesapeake  and  hung,  259. 

Ratcliff,  Jacob.  Mayor  of  New  York, 
513. 

Kawle,  William.  On  claims  for  Spanish 
indemnity,  35. 

Rebellion.  In  East  Florida,  537 ;  flag  of 
the  rebels,  538 ;  capture  of  Amelia  Isl- 
and, 538,  539 ;  surrender  to  United 
States,  539;  attack  on  St.  Augustine, 
639,  540. 

Redemptioners.    In  Pennsylvania,  514. 

Reforms  in  State  constitutions,  149-153 ; 
in  that  of  Pennsylvania,  159-162 ;  in 
that  of  New  Jersey,  162 ;  in  that  of 
Maryland,  162;  in  that  of  Connecticut, 
190-193. 

Regidors,  19. 

Regnier,  Grand  Judge.  Announces  the 
enforcement  of  the  French  decrees, 
276. 

Religion.  "  Section  29  "  set  apart  for  use 
of  religious  bodies,  115,  note. 

Representation.  Massachusetts  proposes 
to  limit  it  to  freemen,  44,  45 ;  action  of 
the  States  on,  46,  47. 

Representatives  in  State  Legislatures. 
Qualifications  for  the  office,  148. 

Resolutions.  Virginia  and  Kentucky,  of 
1798, 1799,  affirmed  by  Pennsylvania, 
388  and  note. 

Resource.    Case  of  the  ship,  302,  303. 

Restrictions.  On  San  Domingo  trade, 
216-218;  rule  of  1756,  219.  222;  orders 
in  council  and  French  decrees,  220- 
223;  non-importation  from  England, 
231-236. 

Rev.enge,  The.  Sent  to  England  with 
despatches,  264,  270. 

Revenue.  From  sale  of  public  lands, 
120,  121 ;  to  be  used  to  build  roads, 
135, 136. 

Rhea,  John.  President  of  convention  of 
Now  Feliciana,  371. 

Rhode  Island.  On  the  land  claims  of  the 
States,  92,  93 ;  opposition  to  Force  Act, 
883 ;  Governor  refuses  to  call  out  the 
militia,  546. 

Richard,  The  sloop.  Murder  of  the 
helmsman,  236,  237 ;  excitement  over, 
237-240. 

Rhea,  John,  299. 

Richmond.    Burr  brought  before  Mar- 


shall, 76, 79 ;  during  the  trial  of  Burr, 
79,80. 

Rio  Bravo,  14,  38,  39,  40. 

Rio  Colorado,  38,  39. 

Rio  Grande,  32. 

Roads.  Grant  to  Zane,  121 ;  the  United 
States  to  build  roads  to  and  in  Ohio, 
134, 135, 136;  effect  of  western  movement 
of  population  on,  462 ;  rise  of  turnpike 
companies  in  the  East,  462, 463  j  cost  of 
land  carriage,  463,  464 ;  turnpike  toll, 
464 ;  Cumberland  Road,  469,  470. 

Rodney,  Judge.    Burr  tried  before,  75. 

Rodney,  Caesar  A.,  177, 180. 

Rodgers,  Commodore  John.  Commands 
fleet  off  Tripoli,  208 ;  sails  on  the  Presi- 
dent, 403  ;  affair  with  Little  Belt,  403- 
405. 

Rose,  George  Henry.  English  envoy  to 
adjust  Chesapeake  aftair,  269,  270 ; 
reaches  United  States,  270, 281,  282 ; 
instructions,  282:  negotiations,  282, 
283 ;  takes  formal  leave,  283 ;  corre- 
spondence with  Pickering,  283,  284. 

Roxbury.  Town  of,  in  Massachusetts,  454. 

"  Rule  of  1756,"  219-222. 

Rumsey,  James,  487. 

Russell,  Jonathan.  Chargt  d'affaires  at 
Paris ;  asks  if  decrees  are  repealed,  407 ; 
reads  report  of  Cadore,  40S ;  of  Semon- 
ville,  408 ;  protests  against  seizure  of 
American  ships,  408 ;  demands  mean- 
ing of  Semonville's  words,  408;  is 
g_iven  two  letters  from  Minister  of  Jus- 
tice and  Minister  of  Finance,  408 ;  de- 
livers Non-intercourse  Act  of  1811  to 
Bassano,  409 ;  action  of  Napoleon,  409. 

Ryland,  Herman  W.,  secretary  to  Sir 
James  Craig.  Letters  of  Henry  to,  285, 
286. 

Sackett's  Harbor.  Embargo  broken  at, 
305. 

Sailors.  Suffering  of,  in  the  cities  after 
embargo,  289,  290. 

St.  Albans.  People  of,  answer  the  pro- 
clamation declaring  them  insurgents, 
297. 

St.  Augustine.  Attacked  by  the  East 
Florida  rebels,  539,  540. 

St.  Clair,  Arthur,  Governor  of  North- 
west Territory,  112 ;  organizes  govern- 
ment, 113;  laws  adopted  by,  113-115; 
on  division  of  territory,  123. 

St.  John's  Plains.     Convention  at,  370. 

St.  Louis,  Burr  at,  in  1805,  59. 

St.  Mary's,  537-540. 

Salary  Act  of  Massachusetts,  453,454. 

Salcedo,  Don  Juan  Manuel  de.  Delivers 
Louisiana  to  France,  10, 11. 

Salina.     Salt  works  at,  480. 

Salem.  Supports  the  embargo,  312;  an- 
niversary of  embargo,  323 ;  representa- 
tion tax,  454. 

Salt.  Manufacture  of.  at  Salina,  480; 
salt  trade  of  New  York,  480.  481 ;  To- 
cumthe  refuses  to  receive  the  annual 
allowance,  531 ;  seizes  the  allowance 
for  the  Northwest  Indians,  532. 


INDEX. 


581 


San  Domingo.  The  island,  215,  216: 
L'Ouverture,  216  ;  trade  suspended  and 
renewed,  216,  217  ;  fall  of  L'Ouverture, 
217;  ports  opened,  217;  trade  with, 

217,  218;  Napoleon  orders  it  stopped, 

218,  210 ;  a  law  passed,  219. 
Sargent,  Winthrop,  Secretary  of  North- 
west Territory,  112;  Governor  of  Miss- 
issippi Territory,  129 ;  describes  people 
of  Mississippi,  129, 130 ;  charges  against 
him,  130. 

Saunders,  Henry.  Deserter  from  the 
Halifax  and  from  the  Chesapeake,  256 ; 
included  in  Berkeley's  order,  257. 

Sauv4,  Pierre,  28. 

Savannah.     Cyclone  of  1804  at,  196. 

Schenectady  boat,  480. 

Schuyler,  Philip.  Delegate  to  the  Con- 
tinental Congress,  94;  on  land  troubles, 
94 ;  letter  to  Congress  on  Indian  mat- 
ters, 94. 

Schuylkill  and  Susquehanna  Canal,  478. 
(See  Union  Canal.) 

Secession.  Existence  of  a  desire  for,  43 ; 
sentiments  of  public  men  on,  44,  note, 
47,  48 :  Pickering's  plan  for  a  northern 
confederacy,  48,  51,  52;  Burr's  plan  for 
a  southwestern,  54-56 ;  begins  his  move- 
ments, 56,  57,  58,  60 ;  hints  of  his  plan 
made  public,  60. 

"  Section,"  104  and  note  ;  "  section  16  "  re- 
served for  education,  105;  "section 
29  "  reserved  for  use  of  religious  bodies, 
115,  note. 

Semonville,  Comte.  Speech  to  French 
Senate  on  the  decrees,  408,  425. 

Senate,  United  States.     (See  Congress.) 

Senators.  In  the  State  Legislatures, 
qualification  for  the  office,  148, 150. 

Serurier.  Succeeds  Turreau  as  French 
Minister,  394 ;  protests  against  delay  in 
sending  Barlow  to  France,  410 ;  asked 
to  write  a  letter  stating  that  the  decrees 
are  repealed,  410. 

"Servants."  Law  concerning,  in  In- 
diana, 525. 

"Seven  Ranges"  surveyed,  108, 109. 

Shippen,  Edward.    Impeached,  159. 

Shrewsbury.    Against  war,  552. 

Simpson,  Slingsby,  239. 

Sinclair,  Lieutenant.  Enlists  deserters 
from  English  ships,  256. 

Siren,  The,  202,  206. 

Skipwith,  Fulwar,  Governor  of  State  of 
West  Florida,  372. 

Slaves.  Massachusetts  proposes  to  abol- 
ish three-fifths  representation  of,  44, 45 ; 
answers  of  the  States,  46,  47 ;  excluded 
from  Northwest  Territory,  114;  admit- 
ted to  territory  south  of  Ohio,  117, 118. 

Slave  trade,  Restrictions  on,  515,  516 ; 
South  Carolina  opens  her  ports  to,  517 ; 
North  Carolina  proposes  a  constitution- 
al amendment,  517 ;  abolished  by  Con- 
gress, 520,  521. 

Slavery.  Feeling  toward,  at  end  of  Revo- 
lution, 514,  515;  powers  of  Congress 
over,  stated,  515 ;  Fugitive-Slave  Act, 
515 ;  restriction  on  the  slave  trade,  515, 


516 ;  State  laws  on  slave  trade,  517 ; 
South  Carolina  repeals  hers,  517  ;  North 
Carolina  proposes  a  constitutional 
amendment,  517 ;  South  Carolina  de- 
fended, 518,  519;  in  the  Northwest 
Territory,  521-524;  in  Indiana  Terri- 
tory, 524-527  :  in  Michigan,  527,  528. 

Sloan,  James.  Resolutions  on  trade,  230, 
231. 

Smith,  Israel,  indicted  for  treason,  83. 

Smith,  Israel,  175. 

Smith,  John,  of  New  York,  175. 

Smith,  John,  Senator  from  Ohio,  in- 
dicted for  treason,  83;  later  career, 
88 :  in  the  trial  of  Judge  Chase,  175. 

Smith,  Robert,  Secretary  of  State,  339 ; 
dismissed  from  office,  400,  401. 

Smith,  Thomas.    Impeached,  159. 

Smuggling.  Over  the  frontier,  293,  294, 
296,  297,  304-307. 

Snyder,  Simon,  161, 162. 

Societies.  To  encourage  manufactures, 
500,  501 ;  manufacturing,  504,  505 ;  be- 
nevolent, 511 ;  trade  unions,  511 ;  jour- 
neymen trade,  511-513. 

Somers,  Captain.  Lost  in  the  Intrepid, 
206. 

South,  the.  Feeling  toward,  in  New 
England,  42-45,  47. 

South  Carolina.  On  the  Ely  amend- 
ment of  the  United  States  Constitu- 
tion, 46;  land  cession,  115;  land  dis- 
pute with  Georgia,  125, 126;  franchise 
in,  147;  office-holder's  qualification, 
148;  opens  her  ports  to  slave  trade, 
517 ;  action  defended,  528,  529. 

Spain.  Delivers  Louisiana  to  France, 
10, 11 ;  protests  against  sale  of  Louisi- 
ana to  United  States,  11,  12;  keeps 
troops  at  New  Orleans,  27,  28 ;  protests 
against  Mobile  Act,  31,  32-  dispute 
with,  regarding  West  Florida,  31,  34 ; 
indemnity  demanded  of,  for  spolia- 
tion, 34,  35;  Yrujo  takes  opinion  of 
American  lawyers  on,  35,  36 ;  conven- 
tion regarding,  34-41 ;  conduct  of  Pinck- 
ney  concerning,  36,  37;  Monroe  sent 
to,  37 ;  negotiations  of  Monroe  and 
Pinckney  regarding  Louisiana  bound- 
ary, 37-41 ;  bpanish  decree  of  Febru- 
ary 19,  1807,  270;  Spanish  Minister 
applies  for  interpretation  of  Berlin 
decree,  270  •  attacked  by  Napoleon, 
309,  310;  Carlos  IV  abdicates,  310; 
people  rise,  310 ;  Napoleon  at  Bayonne, 
310 ;  Bayonne  decree,  310;  Joseph 
Bonaparte  made  king,  312 ;  French  re- 
verses in,  312. 

Springfield.    "Wages  at,  509. 

Spoliations,  French.  On  American  com- 
merce in  Spanish  ports,  34-36 ;  demand 
for  indemnity,  38. 

Squatters.  Driven  from  the  public  lands, 
105-107, 108. 

Stage-coach  line.  Philadelphia  to  New 
York,  492,  note. 

State.  Call  for  a  convention  to  frame  a 
government  for  one  north  of  Ohio 
river,  106  and  note. 


582 


INDEX. 


Stato  rights.  Contest  for,  183-186;  as- 
serted by  Massachusetts  towns,  327- 
329;  by  General  Court,  330;  asserted 
by  Connecticut,  331,  332,  545;  resolu- 
tion of  Pennsylvania  affirming  the  Vir- 
ginia and  Kentucky  doctrine  of  1798, 
388  and  note. 

States.    Admission  of  "  new  States,"  6. 

States,  The  original  thirteen.  Land 
claims  and  disputes  of,  90-92;  land 
cessions  of,  92,  93 ;  plans  for  forming 
new  States,  Westsylvania,  91  and  note ; 
petition  from  Kentucky,  97,  98 ;  Eland's 
plan,  98,  99 ;  promises  to  Virginia,  100. 

States,  number  of,  in  1812,  459. 

Statira,  British  frigate,  270. 

Stay  laws.    Under  embargo,  416,  417. 

Steamboat,  486;  early  history  of,  487; 
Fulton's  labor,  488 ;  Livingston's  la- 
bors, 488 ;  Fulton's  experiments  on  the 
Seine,  489 ;  the  Clermont,  490,  491 ; 
Livingston  and  Fulton  monopoly,  491 ; 
the  Phoenix,  491 ;  the  Karitan,  491, 492 ; 
New  Jersey  attacks  the  Livingston- 
Fulton  monopoly,  492,  493;  rival  com- 
Eany  on  the  Hudson  enjoined,  493 ; 
tevens  attempts  to  establish  a  line  on 
Chesapeake  Bay,  493  and  note ;  steam- 
boat on  the  Mississippi,  493 ;  on  ferry 
to  New  Jersey,  493 ;  on  ferry  to  Cam- 
den,  494. 

Ste^le,  John.  Secretary  of  Mississippi 
Territory,  129. 

Steubenville.    Land  office  at,  124. 

Stevens.  John  Cox.  His  steamboat  on 
the  Hudson,  487 ;  builds  and  operates 
the  Phoenix,  491, 492 ;  attempt  to  estab- 
lish a  steamboat  lino  on  Chesapeake 
Bay,  493  and  note. 

Stockbridge.    Wages  at,  509. 

Stoddart,  Amos.  Eeceives  Upper  Louisi- 
ana and  delivers  it  to  United  States,  13, 
note. 

Stoddart,  Fort.   Made  a  port  of  entry,  32. 

Stonington.     Wages  at,  509. 

Strachan,  John.  'Deserter  from  Melam- 
pus,  255 ;  enlists  on  Chesapeake,  255 ; 
taken  from  Chesapeake,  259. 

Streets  of  New  Orleans,  16. 

Strikes.  Of  Baltimore  tailors,  511 ;  of 
Philadelphia  cordwainers.  512,  513;  of 
Baltimore  tailors,  513;  of  New  York 
cordwainers,  513. 

Strong,  Caleb.  Nominated  for  Governor- 
ship of  Massachusetts,  454;  elected, 
454. 

Suffrage.  Limitation  on,  146, 147 ;  wom- 
en enfranchised  in  New  Jersey,  147 ;  in 
Delaware,  Pennsylvania.  New  Hamp- 
shire, South  Carolina,  Vermont,  Ken- 
tucky, 149, 150 ;  struggle  for  the  limi- 
tation of,  in  New  Jersey,  150. 151. 

Sullivan,  James,  Governor  of  Massachu- 
setts. Correspondence  regarding  flour 
certificates,  302. 

Surveys  of  the  coast,  465-467 ;  the  coast 
survey  established,  468. 

Susquehanna  and  Tioga  Turnpike  Com- 
pany, 475. 


Susquehanna  Bridge  Company,  475. 
Swartwout,    Samuel.       Confederate    of 

Burr,  63 ;  goes  to  New  Orleans,  69,  70 ; 

delivers  Burr's  letter  to  Wilkinson,  70; 

arrested  at  Fort  Adams,  74;  sent  north 

by  sea,  74 ;  arrested  at  Washington,  78 ; 

set  free,  79. 
Symmes,  John  Clove,  Judge  of  New  York 

Territory,  113 ;  land  purchase  of,  115. 
Syndic,  21. 

Tailors.  Strike  of  journeymen,  at  Balti- 
more, 511. 

Talleyrand.  Consulted  as  to  Louisiana 
boundary  by  Monroe,  39 ;  informed  of 
Burr's  conspiracy,  56 ;  succeeded  by 
Champagny,  270. 

Tammany  Society,  of  New  York  City. 
Attends  funeral  of  Pierce,  237,  238 ;  of 
Philadelphia,  resolutions,  239,  240. 

Tardiveau,  Bartholomew.  Asks  for  inter- 
pretation of  Article  VI  of  ordinance  of 
1787,  521.  522. 

Tariffs.  The  first,  495  ;  rise  of  the  pro- 
tective system,  496-498 ;  desire  for 
home  manufactures,  499 ;  attempt  to 
tax  slaves  imported,  518,  519. 

Taxes.  Spanish,  in  Louisiana,  22 ;  land 
sold  by  United  States  not  to  be  taxed 
for  five  years,  134,  135 ;  war  taxes,  442- 
444. 

Tecumthe.  Sketch  of,  529 ;  his  plan  for 
an  Indian  confederacy,  529,  530;  occu- 
pies Tippccanoe,  530 ;  meets  Harrison 
at  Vinccnnes,  531 ;  his  demands,  531, 
532;  comes  to  Vincennes  with  his  war- 
riors, 532 ;  goes  to  Georgia,  532 :  people 
demand  that  his  town  be  broken  up, 
532  •  his  journey  to  Georgia,  535 ;  effect 
on  the  Indians  there,  535,  536. 

Tennessee.  Stay  laws,  416;  trade  in, 
484 ;  lack  of  money  in,  484 ;  plan  for 
improvement  of  trade,  485,  486  ;  on  the 
Erie  Canal,  479 ;  trade  and  commerce 
of,  484-486. 

Tenure  of  office.  Life  tenure,  152 ;  at- 
tempt to  abolish,  in  Pennsylvania,  153- 
159. 

Territories,  The  formation  of.  Orleans, 
23  ;  Louisiana,  30 ;  Northwest,  100-102, 
110,112;  south  of  OhiOj  117, 118;  status 
of,  under  the  Constitution.  10,  24-26. 

Tests.  Religious,  for  office-holders,  148 ; 
for  voters,  147 ;  abolition  of,  149, 150^. 

Testaments.  Belief  in  the  inspiration 
of  the,  a  qualification  for  voting,  148. 

Texas.  Armstrong  urges  Jefferson  to 
seize,  209 ;  action  of  Spaniards  in,  210. 

Theatre  in  New  Orleans,  18. 

Thomas,  Philemon.  Leader  in  New  Fe- 
liciana  rebellion,  371,  372. 

Tilsit    Peace  of,  272. 

Tilton,  Daniel.  Judge  iu  Mississippi 
Territory,  129. 

Tinsley,  Peter,  428. 

Title.  The  Indian,  to  Western  land 
extinguished,  103. 

Tippocanoc.  Indian  town  at,  530,  531 ; 
alarm  of  the  people  at,  532  ;  Harrison 


INDEX. 


583 


marches  against,  533 ;  battle  of,  533, 
534 ;  destruction  of,  534. 

Tivoli  Garden,  19. 

Toasts.  At  dinner  to  Rufus  King,  1 97 ;  to 
the  "  virtuous  minority,"  337  ;  at  Ded- 
ham,  552  ;  "  The  Potomac,  the  Bound- 
ary," 43. 

Tobacco.    Cost  of  transporting,  463. 

Toronto,  or  York.  Capital  of  Upper  Can- 
ada, 558. 

Torpedo,  Fulton's,  488,  489. 

Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  216,  217. 

Township,  104  and  note ;  sections  re- 
served for  education,  105. 

Trade  with  San  Domingo,  216-218,  219 ; 
restriction  of,  by  Great  Britain,  219; 
direct  trade  defined,  222-224;  British 
licenses,  274;  cost  of  trade  under  the 
license  system,  307,  308 ;  Non-inter- 
course Act  of  March  1,  1809,  335,  336  ; 
suspended  after  June  10,  1809,  as  to 
England,  342 ;  eiFect  of  suspension,  342, 
843 ;  rejoicings  over,  346, 347 ;  non-inter- 
course renewed,  349.  361 5  Napoleon 
restores  limited  trade  with  United 
States,  368 ;  promise  of  repeal  of  Berlin 
and  Milan  decree,  36_8. 

Trade  unions,  511 ;  strikes  of,  511-513. 
^Transportation  in  tho  United  States. 
Effect  of  Western  movement  of  popu- 
lation, 461,  462;  turnpikes,  462,  463: 
cost  of,  46J,  464;  tolls.  464;  effect  of 
embargo  on  routes  of,  464,*465 ;  cost  of, 
from  New  York  towns  to  Canada,  464, 
465 ;  difficulties  of,  between  Albany 
and  Pittsburg,  480,  481. 

Travel.  By  steamboat,  490-492;  by 
stage  coach  between  New  York  and 
Philadelphia,  492,  note. 

Treason.  Overt  act  defied  by  prosecu- 
tors of  Burr,  84 ;  decision  of  Marshall, 
85. 

Treasury  notes.    Issue  of,  549. 

Treaty  of  1806  with  England.  Instruc- 
tions of  Monroe  and  Pinckney,  248 ; 
negotiation,  249-251 ;  rejected  by  Jef- 
ferson, 252,  253. 

Treaty.  Louisiana  purchase,  ratifica- 
tions exchanged,  3 ;  Griswold  calls  for 
papers,  4:  of  Greenville,  118;  Indian 
treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix,  103 ;  Fort  Mc- 
Intosh,  103 ;  new  treaties  with  the  In- 
dians, 529  ;  anger  of  the  Indians,  530. 

Trenton.    Meeting  of  peace  party  at,  552. 

Trial  of  Aaron  Burr  at  Kichmond,  79- 
88  ;  of  Judge  Addison,  157  ;  of  Shippen, 
Yeates,  and  Smith,  159 ;  of  Pickering, 
165, 166-168,  172,  173-  of  Chase,  177- 
182 ;  of  the  Philadelphia  cordwainers 
for  conspiracy,  512 ;  of  the  New  York 
cordwainers  for  conspiracy,  513. 

"Triangle,  The."  In  Pennsylvania, 
origin  of,  112,  note. 

Trinity.  Belief  in,  a  necessary  qualifica- 
tion for  voting,  148. 

Tripoli.  War  with,  200-202  ;  Philadel- 
phia captured  off,  202,  203;  Eaton's 
plan  to  restore  Hamet,  205 ;  siege  of,  by 
Proble,  206 ;  loss  of  the  Intrepid,  206 ; 


Eaton's  march  from  Cairo,  206,  207 ; 
capture  of  Derne,  207  ;  peace,  207,  208. 

Troup,  George  M.,  420 ;  on  war  with  Eng- 
land, 320. 

Trumbull,  Jonathan,  Governor  of  Con- 
necticut. Refuses  to  execute  Force  Act, 
331,  332. 

Truxton,  Commodore.  Entertains  Bun- 
after  the  duel,  54;  Burr  attempts  to 
enlist  him  in  his  plans,  63,  70,  84. 

Tuckaubatchee,  a  Creek  town.  Tecum- 
the  at,  535. 

Turner,  Judge.  Attempts  to  free  slaves 
under  the  ordinance  of  1787,  522. 

Turner,  Charles.  Insulted  at  Plymouth, 
555. 

Turnpikes.  Beginning  of,  in  United 
States,  462,  463 ;  rate  of  toll,  464. 

Turreau,  Louis  Marie,  French  Minister 
to  the  United  States.  Acquainted  with 
Burr's  schemes,  56 ;  asks  for  stoppage  of 
San  Domingo  trade,  218,  219. 

"  Two  thirds  of  both  Houses."  Meaning 
of,  186. 

Tyler,  Comfort.     Indicted  for  treason, 


Union  Canal  Company.  Applies  to  Con- 
gress for  aid,  478,  479. 

'  Union,  This."  Meaning  of  the  words, 
6-8. 

Urbana,  556. 

Van  Ness,  William  P.  Defends  Burr, 
49 ;  carries  the  challenge  to  Hamilton, 
52. 

Varnum,  James  W.  Judge-  of  North- 
west Territory,  112. 

Varnum,  James  B.  Ser.t  to  United 
States  Senate  in  place  of  Pickering, 
422,  423. 

Venezuela.    Insurrection  in,  369. 

Vermont.  Embargo  evaded  in,  297; 
proclamation  declaring  the  people  in- 
surgents, 297 ;  answer  of  people,  297  ; 
turnpikes  in,  463. 

Vessels.  Number  of,  in  the  navy  in 
1812,  548. 

Vice-President.  Separate  ballot  for,  183- 
187;  candidates  for,  in  1804,  188;  in 
1808,  314 ;  death  of  Clinton,  456 ;  can- 
didates for,  in  1812,  456. 

Vincennes.  Capital  of  Indiana  Terri- 
tory, 524 ;  Tecumthe  at,  531,  532. 

"  Vincennes  Convention."  Petition  from, 
for  the  introduction  of  slaves  into 
Indiana,  524,  525;  Randolph's  report 
on,  525. 

Virginia.  Answers  Ely  amendment  to 
Constitution,  45,  46 ;  feeling  toward,  in 
New  England,  47,  48,  51 ;  dispute  with 
Maryland  over  "W  estern  lands,  93?  94 ; 
opens  a  land  office,  93 ;  protests  against, 
94;  her  position,  94;  dispute  with 
Pennsylvania,  95 ;  with  Kentucky,  96 ; 
Paine's  pamphlets,  "  Public  Good,"  96, 
and  "  Plain  Facts,"  97 ;  question  of  ac- 
cepting the  cession,  97,  99, 100 ;  cession 
accepted,  100 ;  Stay  Law,  416 ;  against 


584 


INDEX. 


recharter  of  the  tank,  388 ;  asserts  right 
of  instruction,  390;  gerrymander  in, 
453. 

Vixen,  The,  206. 

Vote.  Limitations  on  the  right,  146, 147 ; 
of  women  in  New  Jersey,  147 :  exten- 
sion of  suffrage,  149, 150;  on  the  dec- 
laration of  war,  457  and  note,  458. 

"Wabash  river.  Extinction  of  the  Indian 
title,  528,  529. 

Wages.  Rates  of,  in  various  parts  of  the 
United  States,  509, 510 ;  rates  for  skilled 
labor,  510,  511 ;  strike  for  higher,  511, 
513. 

Wagner,  Jacob.  Editor  of  Federal  Re- 
publican?  553,  554. 

Wagons  going  toward  the  frontier  stopped 
by  the  embargo,  304. 

War.  Question  of  going  to,  discussed, 
265-267 ;  the  war  message,  456,  457 ; 
the  declaration,  457, 458  j  the  proclama- 
tion, 458 ;  the  declaration,  opposition 
to,  in  New  England,  551,  552. 

War  taxes.    Debate  on,  442-444. 

Ware,  William.  Deserts  from  Melam- 
pus,  255 ;  takes  service  on  Chesapeake, 
255  j  taken  from  Chesapeake,  259. 

Washington,  George,  240^  241. 

"  We,  the  people  of  the  United  States,"  377. 

Webster,  Pelatiah.  On  the  use  to  be  made 
of  Western  lands,  96  and  note. 

Wellesley,  Arthur.    In  Spain,  312. 

Wellesley,  Marquis.  His  reply  to  Pink- 
ney  regarding  orders  in  council,  364, 
365;  his  reply  to  Champagny's  letter 
of  August  5,  369. 

West  Indies,  French.  Negroes  and  mu- 
lattoes  from,  excluded  from  the  United 
States,  517. 

"  Westsylvania."  Petition  to  form  the 
State  of,  91 ;  boundary  of,  91,  note. 

Western  World,  The,  64,  65. 

Wheat.    Cost  of  transporting,  463. 

Whitby,  Henry,  239. 

Widgery,  William.  Insulted  at  Boston, 
555. 

Wilkinson,  James.  Receives  Louisiana 
from  France,  13 ;  military  commander 


of  Orleans  Territory,  26;  aids  Burr, 
55;  Burr  visits,  at  Fort  Massac,  58 ;  at- 
tempts to  corrupt  the  army,  59 ;  Bun- 
visits,  at  St.  Louis,  59,  60 ;  Burr's  letter 
to,  70 ;  betrays  Burr,  70 ;  activity  after 
the  betrayal,  73 ;  goes  to  New  Orleans, 
73 ;  begins  to  arrest  the  conspirators  at 
New  Orleans,  74;  attached  for  con- 
tempt, 74 ;  defies  the  Court,  74 ;  chal- 
lenged by  Swartwout,  81 ;  appears  as  a 
witness  against  Burr,  83. 

Williamson,  Colonel.  Agent  of  Burr,  54, 
55,  note,  56. 

Wilmington,  N.  C.  Free  negroes  land 
at,  517 ;  memorial  from  the  citizens, 
517;  action  of  Congress,  517. 

Winchester,  James,  547. 

Windmill  Bay.    Smuggling  at,  304. 

Wirt,  William.  At  Burr's" trialj  79,  80; 
his  famous  oration  at  Burr's  trial,  85. 

Women.    Vote  in  New  Jersey,  147. 

Wool  and  woollen  mills,  503,  504. 

Worcester.     On  the  embargo,  312. 

Wyandots.  Join  Tecumthe,  531;  join 
the  English,  559. 

Wycth,  George,  428. 

Yazoo  Land  Companies.  Origin  of  Geor- 
gia claim,  125, 126  ;  the  sales  by  Geor- 
gia, 127,  128;  claims  before  Congress, 
132 ;  before  Supreme  Court,  132 ;  settle- 
ment, 132, 133. 

Yeates,  Jasper.    Impeached,  159. 

Yellow  Creek.  Squatters  driven  from, 
107. 

York,  or  Toronto,  capital  of  Upper  Cana- 
da, 558. 

Yruio,  Don  Carlos  Martinez,  Spanish 
Minister  at  Washington.  Protests 
against  sale  of  Louisiana  to  the  United 
States,  11, 12;  against  "Mobile  Act," 
31 ;  takes  opinion  of  American  lawyers 
on  our  demand  for  indemnity,  35,  36 ; 
Dayton  makes  known  Burr's  plan  to, 
62;  Burr's  letter  to,  71 ;  warns  Spanish 
Governors  against  Burr,  71,  72. 

Zane,  Ebenezer.    Land  grant  to,  121. 
Zanesville,  121, 


END   OF   VOLUME   HI. 


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